Naruto: Fields of Glass
by FlyerOfTheSkys
Summary: Long ago, before the rise of ninja, an old world order kept those who had 'bloodlines' under wraps, hiding them from public view, or killing them off. By time ninja inhabited the world, only one clan was in hiding from the rest of the world, waiting to recreate the Fields of Glass from their homeland. Rated M to be safe, don't know what I may add :) NaruxSpecial surprise!Muahaha
1. Introduction

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and who ever he gives it to or helped him, NOT me. I own nothing! Lol**

 **Naruto will be OOC in this, and Kakashi will be a little more serious, it's my first story and I'm not sure how to go about it. More than a few things will be changed. Anyway, comment please, I need to know if this will be good or not lol :D All comments welcome, flames will be used to help construct Naruto's will of fire XD.**

 **BY THE WAY: To those who have already read some of this and are wondering why the chapters are being re-uploaded, it's cause I fixed some grammar. The story is pretty much the same. Tora** _**is**_ **male though. I confused that one up. And Naruto's outfit is described a little more at the end of Chapter 4 Meeting the Team, Ty!**

 **Introduction (ch. 1)**

It was a normal morning in Konoha. Well, as normal as it could get with a ninja village. Children were playing in the streets, hyping themselves up for tomorrow when the academy opened up for the new year. Shopkeepers were yelling out their wares in the market. Every once in a while a ninja would cross the roof tops covered in neon pink paint, seeming to be searching for something. The Hokage would be in his office right about now, doing paperwo- wait, back up. Ninjas on the roof, covered in pink paint...that can only mean one thing.

"NARUTOOOO! Get back here!" The Hokage, sitting in his chair, turned to look out the window, laughing silently at his surrogate grandson. This would surely teach the Anbu to be more vigilant. After all, if a pre-academy student with no formal ninja training can get into their headquarters without anyone noticing, he couldn't imagine what a well trained enemy would do. Sarutobi had enlisted Naruto on his fifth birthday as an unofficial operative in the field of being an enemy simulation. He would sneak into important buildings that enemies may target and instead of setting off traps with weapons or bombs and stealing important documents, he would set off pranks such as paint bombs and netting, taking something trivial, such as a stapler, and put it in Sarutobi's office, as proof of his accomplishment.

Speak of the devil, Naruto popped in through his window and hid under his desk as a female chunin covered in splatters of neon pink and bright yellow paint burst through the door and practically collapsed at the door trying to regain her breath. Sarutobi raised an eyebrow and waited for the woman to speak.

"Sir, it's Naruto again. He's pranked the Anbu headquarters, everyone that was standing within ten feet of the place was splattered with paint." She said between breaths. "I saw him come this way and feared you were going to be pranked next." He recognized the chunin as Kurenai Yuuhi, one of the chunin he was looking forward to promoting to special jonin should she get better at genjutsu. _She must have been going to visit Anko again. Anko is showing her some tips for torture and interrogation genjutsu after all._

"Thank you for your concern Chunin Yuuhi, I have not seen Naruto, but he is sure to come here soon. Please tell all of the ninja looking for him that I will deal with it and will call them if needed." Kurenai bowed and left the room, Naruto and Sarutobi both sighing in relief when she did. Sarutobi did a hand seal under the desk and locked the room with a seal, then let Naruto out from under his desk. "So Naruto, how did it go?"

"Pretty well Jiji, I got in and set up all the paint bombs, grabbed some document that was in the open and bolted. A few seconds later I set off the paint bombs then came here. Here's my proof by the way." Naruto handed him a folder. Sarutobi looked inside the folder to see information on the ninja patrols for that night. Every night a new patrol route would be derived from previous ones put together and the one he had was a result of that method. Usually the new ones were burned as the originals were used by every village. This helped surprise enemy spies looking for a gap in the patrols.

"Good, Naruto. This shows me that the Anbu really need to step up with their skills." He said to Naruto, then he called out to his secretary, "Saiyu! Please get me Ibiki Morino and Inoichi Yamanaka." The secretary left to do so. He turned to Naruto, " Ok Naruto, you've done your part, now I have to do mine. Remember to go to the academy tomorrow morning, room 101 with Rai."

Naruto saluted and went back out the window.


	2. Meet the Mask

**Meet the Mask (ch. 2)**

Naruto was never late to a meeting with anyone...Never. During one of the meetings with Sarutobi they had discussed getting Naruto a metaphorical mask, so that his teachers would think he was unintelligent and not kick him out of class. The reason he was never late was because he respected the Third Hokage and his own reputation with others, but as they discussed, his new mask would make him seem rude, ignorant and naive towards everything around him, including regularly being late to class. It irked Naruto that he had to be late, he hated being late, it's what got you or your comrades killed in real situations or ruined a perfectly good plan/prank in his view. It also ruined one's reputation to a degree that if you show up early you are considered an enemy for being 'out of the norm'.

Today was the day he had to go to the academy for the first time. Today was the first day he had to put his mask into use and keep it up, unlike the times he practiced it with his jiji. _Today's gonna suck._ He thought walking to the academy, putting on a big idiotic smile that hurt his face. As he passed by the market district he noticed shopkeepers giving him strange looks, having realized that this is truly the first time they have seen his smile, even if it was fake. Usually Naruto would avoid being seen in public as the citizens of Konoha don't like him very well. But from now on he had to, for the sake of his mask.

As he walked into the academy he saw no one in the halls, eventually reaching room 101, Mr. Rai's class for first year students. Living up to his mask he was late. The teacher was already doing roll call. Mr. Rai was nondescript and average, perfect for a ninja, you would see him but later not recognize his face, he was also an extremely boring man if the half asleep children in the room had anything to say about him. Naruto walked up to the man smiling goofily and loudly exclaimed,

"I'm not late am I?" Scaring the poor chunin who didn't hear him walk in. He laughed silently. _Still got it._

"Eh, oh! You must be Uzumaki Naruto."

"Yup! Yup! How'd ya know? Oh I know, it's cause I'm so awesome huh?"

"No. You were the only one who didn't answer roll call..." Naruto deflated, pretending to be upset about the chunin dismissing him. He looked under his eyelashes at the students around the room and saw most of them dismissing him or scoffing at his masks' arrogance and stupidity. _Plan set in motion...Joy._ He thought with sarcasm. Mr. Rai asked him to tell the class his name, what food he liked, color he liked and what he disliked. Again living up to the mask he practically yelled,

"Hi! My name is Naruto Uzumaki! My favorite food is ramen, food of the gods," he pretended to drool," and the color orange! I dislike when I can't get ramen and when my neighbors' dogs won't shut up." Mr. Rai told Naruto to sit by a pink haired girl named Sakura, who rose her hand when called on. _Pink hair…. She has to be civilian, there is no way that hair color is real, and no way a kid from a clan would be allowed out of the house without dark hair or something covering it…._ He observed as he noticed some clan children with bandannas over their light colored hair.

"Hi I'm Naruto, nice to meet you!" He said to her, pretending to be ignorant.

"Um.. I know and hi to you too." She replied then went back to looking at the board and glancing at the dark haired boy beside her. Someone tapped him on the shoulder and he turned around to see a blond girl sitting in the row behind him.

"Don't mind Sakura, she's rude like that. She just can't accept that Sasuke is totally mine, not hers. Anyway I'm Ino Yamanaka, it's nice to meet ya, blondie."

"Nice to meet you too, girl blondie."

"Hey I just told ya my name, use it." Sakura who was about to argue with Ino about her Sasuke comment, wisely shut her mouth. When Ino got into fights with boys the boys always lost and Naruto was about to get burned.

"Same here." Ino huffed and sat back, her first time being beat in an argument, and with a boy who seemed stupid enough to eat a kunai. _I win again._ He thought turning back to the front with a confused look on his face. "Girls are strange."

"All boys except Sasuke are stupid." He heard Ino mutter. He laughed silently and listened to whatever the teacher was saying. He really didn't need to listen because the Third had already taught him all of the subjects for each school year he would spend here. Right now he was planning out another prank and where to begin chakra control exercises. He knew how to climb trees but couldn't get to the top quite yet, so he now had the problem of finding a place to practice without raising suspicion over his skills as his mask was supposed to be the idiot of the class.

"Uzumaki! Are you listening?" Naruto looked at the teacher and put his arms behind his head, he had vaguely heard something about releasing chakra.

"Ehehe yeah of course. You were talking about catra!"

"Chakra, Uzumaki. And I was telling you all the hand sign to release it, so seeing as you have ignored me so far, get up here and release your chakra with the ram sign." Naruto walked to the front of the class and performed the ram sign, not bothering to unsuppress his chakra, making Mr. Rai think he failed because he didn't listen to his lecture in the first place.

"Mr. Uzumaki, you have to reach inside yourself to get your chakra to come out."

"Um. That's nasty, how do I reach inside myself, through my mouth, wouldn't that hurt?" The rest of the children in the class began to laugh, he even heard the boy Ino dubbed 'Sasuke', who he wanted to call Sassy pants or Mr. Duck Butt, scoff and mutter the word idiot. The man scowled and told him to sit back down and actually listen this time when he explained it. As soon as he got back to his seat he just zoned out again, and was called on four more times throughout the class period. Finally the end of classes was there and Naruto slowly walked out of the class as others around him rushed out, glad to be away from the extremely boring Mr. Rai. Once he was outside he stood and waited for the Third, who was picking him up today and today only, as he was very busy and needed to do his dreaded paperwork. _Like he wants to._ Naruto snickered, if the old man had his way, all the paperwork would be burned to ashes and used as soil for Naruto's plants.

A boy with brown hair and a small white dog walked up to him and said,

"Dude, I've never seen you around town before. I'm Kiba Inuzuka and this," he pointed to the small dog, "is Akamaru."

"I've lived here all my life, and nice to meet you too!" He replied enthusiastically.

"Really? Huh, well whatever, I want you to meet my friends. Follow me." He walked over to Sakura, who was sitting beside Ino, a purple haired girl, a brown haired chubby boy, a skinny mostly covered brown haired boy and two black haired boys, one of which he remembered to be a raven haired Sasuke.

"Guys this is Naruto! Naruto this is Sakura and Ino, who you've already met. The quiet purple haired girl is Hinata Hyuuga, the fa- I mean big boned kid is Choji Akimichi, p.s. never call him fat," Kiba whispered in his ear," and lazy bones over there is Shikamaru Nara."

"Y-you forgot Sh-Shino again, K-Kiba." Hinata said, stuttering.

"Oh right, the creepy bug guy is Shino Aburame." Shino looked in Kiba's general direction and….just kept staring. Naruto really couldn't tell his expression with all that stuff covering him. Suddenly a bug flew out of Shino's collar and landed on Naruto's now outstretched hand.

"Woah, you control bugs? That's creepy, but cool at the same time." Naruto commented watching the bug crawl around in his hand. The girls looked repulsed and Shino surprised….or was he? Naruto seriously could not tell.

"Ah, Naruto my boy, I see you've made friends." You could practically hear the smile in the Third Hokage's voice. Naruto turned around and ran to Sarutobi, hugged him around the waist and practically yelled,

"Jiji, you actually came! How's the paperwork?" Sarutobi flinched and shivered, causing Naruto to stifle a snicker.

"Well, I dunno really, how are you liking the academy?" This time Naruto flinched. _Touché_ _old man, touch_ _é._ The other children looked on in awe at the Third Hokage, respecting him with every fiber of their being, except for Naruto, which Sakura immediately noticed. She went over and grabbed the back of his shirt and put a hand over his mouth and spoke to the hokage with what she thought was the sweetest voice she had, which to Naruto, the Third and the boys all it sounded like was a suck up,

"Oh, don't mind him, he has no manners at all. He's new here and -"

"Ah, Miss Haruno, you don't have to worry, I know exactly who Naruto is, and he I, but it's nice to have someone show respect to these old bones once in a while." Naruto stopped struggling to get free and just pouted, he knew Sarutobi had something planned for him later. That was the voice he always used when he was amused. "Ah, Naruto, my boy, we better get going. All of these children are surely eager to tell their parents and guardians of their first day at the academy and how many friends they made. I'm sure you are too." Naruto followed, loudly exclaiming how rude the teacher was and how awesome he was so far, Sarutobi nodding every once in a while.


	3. Last year, new additions

**sabba5600: Teehee thank you, and I'm trying to make Naruto follow the rules of real shinobi. Hiding in plain sight, hiding skills, make thy enemy underestimate ye lol All that good stuff. :D**

 **Last year and new additions (ch. 3)**

Out of the three years Naruto had been in the academy he hated the first and second one most and almost enjoyed the third. In his third year he met Iruka Umino, his current teacher and by far the most fun to mess with. Iruka was a teacher that actually cared about his education and tried to help all students as much as he could without the help being illegal or unfair to others. But Iruka wasn't the only reason Naruto tolerated his third year.

Naruto tolerated it for three more reasons. One, it was the last year he had to uphold his mask, he could slowly let it down after he was promoted to genin. Two, he would finally be able to admit he did not love Sakura at all and was pretending because he wanted people to underestimate him when it came to her, mean but true. And three he didn't have to lie to others about what he, Shikamaru, and Shino have been speaking about over the years.

Shikamaru, who was codenamed pineapple, but called Maru for short, and him have been talking about and participating in shogi games for two years. Shino, who was codenamed Mr. Crawly, but called Shi for short, and him have been discussing Naruto's plants and what bugs would be good to make them grow, even going so far as to help Naruto start a colony of bees to get honey and pollinate the plants in his home. He also set up a colony of bees near a place just beyond the Hokage monument where Naruto was creating a garden and natural habitat for the animals, insects and plants that lived their.

When asked what he, Shino and Shikamaru were talking about they would make up the excuse that Naruto was confused on a subject they had went over in class and needed help. That was an addition to his mask by himself as he needed an excuse to talk to Shino and Shikamaru without raising suspicions. Sarutobi, Shikamaru and Shino also added to the mask over the years he spent with them.

Sarutobi added Naruto's mask liking Sakura and hating Sasuke for stealing her affections, to try and get Sasuke to open up just a little bit, as being friendly to him wasn't working, shown by the girls who practically worshiped the ground he stood on. Shikamaru added Naruto's ability to be completely unpredictable in the most amazing ways, such as falling to the ground and ending up avoiding any damage from the various kunai and shuriken lying embedded in the ground around him. Shino added a touch of mystery to Naruto's mask, but it was only mysterious when one asked specifically, 'Who named you?' Naruto was to pretend to not have noticed or not heard the question then when cornered about it change the subject. In truth the person who named Naruto was widely unknown to a lot of people, but no one ever asked who, and Naruto would probably never tell unless that person died. Not even the Hokage knew where the name came from, assuming Naruto's parents were either ramen obsessed, which was true, or honoring their clan, which was highly likely.

Back to the subject at hand, Naruto was in his last year at the academy, the last day to be exact. Over the course of the last few weeks he has held back on pranks and infiltrations per Sarutobi's request, but after getting out of graduation today, which he was ordered to fail in order to live up to his mask, he was to show up in the Hokage's office during the jonin meeting and give a surprise to the jonin present.

Iruka walked into the room and yelled for everyone to be quiet so he could begin testing, they had already done a paper test, an accuracy test and a taijutsu test, all of which Naruto failed horribly at. Now they were doing the ninjutsu tests. One by one students were called into a room across the hall and told to perform specific jutsus to pass, and one by one students walked back into the class with or without headbands.

"Naruto Uzumaki." Iruka called from the other room. Naruto got up and pretended to be horrified and anxious at the prospect of failing. He slowly walked into the other room where Iruka and his assistant Mizuki sat behind a desk with headbands on it.

"Alright Naruto," Mizuki started, hiding a sneer, "Perform a henge." Naruto complied and turned into the Third Hokage. "Good. Now a kawarimi." Naruto did a hand seal and in a puff of smoke now stood directly in front of Mizuki, having switched with the headband in front of him.

"Excellent Naruto, the final jutsu you need to perform is a bunshin." Iruka said as Naruto hopped off the desk and replaced the headband where it once was. Naruto focussed his chakra and forced too much into the jutsu, and when the smoke caused by it let up, a half dead, pale version of Naruto was shown. "I'm sorry Naruto. But with the scores you've made today, and that jutsu being a failure I can't pass you."

Naruto dropped his head and sulked out of the room, not even bothering to return to the classroom. Instead he went to the academy roof, where no one would see him and waited. Eventually Mizuki showed up, sat down next to him and began telling him of another way to pass and become genin. After he said his bit Naruto looked over at him and said,

"Alpha Nine." Immediately an anbu was behind Mizuki and knocked him out.

"Thank you for your cooperation Uzumaki, the Hokage is waiting in his office to give you instructions. The team placement meeting will begin in five minutes, Kakashi Hatake will not be late, so you won't have to worry about not convincing him."

"You guys told him the meeting was two hours ago…. didn't you?" A nod and a chuckle was his answer. The anbu left with Mizuki restrained, heading for the T&I department and Naruto left for his 'meeting' with the Hokage.

Naruto went to his house and doused himself in a solution of red food dye, glue and paper mache and began the Third's plan. He covered a kunai in a thicker substance that dried quicker and performed a shunshin to get right in front of the Hokage's door. The secretary happened to walk in at that moment and screamed to the top of her lungs that he was covered in blood and gore, asking him what had happened. He just kept his eyes wide and downcast with the kunai in his hand.

Sarutobi told her to bring the 'shinobi' inside, pretending to be expecting a mission to have gone wrong. When Naruto walked in everyone in the room gasped. Sarutobi quickly got out of his chair, went to Naruto, bent to his level and put his hands on his shoulders.

"Naruto, Kami, what happened to you? Are you hurt? Have you been attacked?" Naruto raised his head, then looked down to the kunai he pretended to be observing.

"I-I killed M-Mizuki sensei. I think….I think I killed him, and...and it felt so….right." He stuttered and mumbled, gaining a murderous gleam in his eyes. "I know it was bad, but it felt good to do so. Jiji, am I….am I a demon? Or can I do it again?" He smiled and tilted his head. Sarutobi shook his head and looked sadly at Naruto and discretely winked.

"Naruto, you can't be serious. You must have been under the influence of a genjutsu. I don't believe you would - ah!" Naruto swung at him and ripped a piece of cloth from his robe with the kunai. Almost immediately he was detained by the two anbu hidden in the room. "Anbu, he's gone. Please, take him to Konoha's maximum security prison and have him locked in solitary until he can cooperate." The anbu complied and body flickered out with Naruto in tow. The jonin in the room were shocked that an academy student would resort to such measures, although half of them thought it was the Kyuubi showing it's ugly face again.

Sarutobi ended the meeting an hour later, telling the jonin in the room not to speak of the incident. He also mentioned that the rookie teams would have to spar together, whoever they may be, until they either got a new student, or proved Naruto's innocence.

Sarutobi walked through the halls of Konoha's maximum security prison, where his charge, Naruto Uzumaki was just admitted. As he passed by solitary cells he could hear multiple people yelling at him for imprisoning them here. He could also hear an insanely creepy song being sung from one of the rooms. The closer he got to Naruto's cell the louder the childlike song grew, and the more he could hear prisoners yelling to get whatever it was that was singing away from them. He finally reached the door and could faintly hear lyrics to the song he didn't recognize. He walked in a saw Naruto sitting on the bed, swinging his legs and singing loudly.

"Naruto, stop. You're scaring the prisoners near you." Naruto stopped and smiled at him, jumping up to give him a big hug.

"Jiji! I was wondering when you'd get here. The guards are mean. They didn't even let me take a shower to get all that gunk for the plan off, just threw a bucket of water on me and told me to stay still." Sarutobi laughed.

"Naruto, you do realize that they were trying to keep the 'psychopathic, possible danger to others' prisoner away from other inmates.

"Yeah, yeah. But still," he shivered, "It was cold." He laughed again, then became a little more serious.

"You know the plan right."

"Yes, spy on Kijou, Fang and the idiot brothers to see if they are truly spies."

"Good. Now, I'm moving you to lock up, and bunking you with Fang. I want you to be careful Naruto."

"Sure Jiji, but i'm still gonna prank them when the plan is at it's end."

"Aaah, just like your mother." Naruto had already known about his mother. When you have an ancient demon living in your gut, and has lived in the guts of your ancestors you tend to learn quite a lot about not only yourself but unwanted things about others….like how he was made. Naruto shivered. _Cooties….blegh._


	4. Meeting the team

**Hey guys and gals, sorry for being slow lol. I'm trying to get info updated and ready for the story. Anyway, here's chapter 4.**

 **Sabba5600: Maybe, maybe not or maybe later lol If you think I should, give me a list of the teams you think should be together and I'll see if they work with the story. ( I have my ways of changing things lol) :D**

 **Meeting the team (ch. 4)**

(Time skip, two weeks later)

Naruto got up out of bed and looked around his room. Seeing he was in his apartment, and not a prison cell, made him feel happier than ever as today he was to meet his team. Yesterday he had pranked the living crap out of the two prisoners Kijou and Fang, who were revealed as spies when they finally got frustrated with the idiot brothers. Naruto, who overheard the whole thing, started singing one of the creepiest things he could think of. A song Kyuubi had told him was called Ring Around the Roses. 'By the way, thanks Kyuubi!'

' **No problem Kit.** '

(Flashback)

Naruto walked into the the cafeteria of the prison, having overheard the whole conversation between the prisoners Kijou, Fang and the idiot brothers, and began singing.

"Ring around the rosies…"

"What was that?" They turned around. Naruto was walking slowly towards them with his head down. The idiot brothers walked out of the room, not understanding anything at that point.

"A pocket full of posies…."

"It's some kid… Why the hell is he in here?" Fang replied, walking closer to Naruto.

"Dunno, maybe he's lost."

"...ashes….ashes…." Fang knelt near Naruto, right at level with his face. Naruto smiled but quickly squashed the emotion and continued.

"Hey kid," Fang put his hands on Naruto's shoulders, "are you alright? You're not supposed to be in here ya know."

"We all….fall…." Naruto looked up with blood red eyes and a smirk on his face, his whiskers darkened and thick fanged teeth protruding from his mouth and rumbled, " **down**."

"Gah!" Fang fell back and scrambled away Naruto, Kijou running alongside him, while Naruto calmly walked towards them, cornering the two at the edge of the room. All other prisoners had ran from the room already, half creeped out in the middle of the song, the rest panicking after seeing the demonic kid.

"Alpha Nine." Immediately there were Anbu detaining the two prisoners and relocating them with a certain scar faced man and one very happy dango lover.

"Good work, operative. Mission codenamed: Ominous Innocence was a success. You are now free to join your team. Please meet the Third in his tower to debrief."

(Flashback end)

Sarutobi had told all jounins in another meeting that Naruto had been controlled by an enemy, namely Orochimaru, who had spies in the prison. They were trying to persuade Naruto to join them when an anbu doing checks on the prisoners caught the two spies and freeing Naruto from the genjutsu place on him, bringing him back to be re-evaluated for ninja duties. Naruto passed and was freed to once more be apart of the rookies.

He didn't tell Naruto who his teammates were but knowing Sarutobi it wouldn't be people he couldn't tolerate, right? Right…. Anyway, Naruto got dressed in a dark green tee-shirt, reinforced with a sewn in under armor to keep him cool in hot temperature*1. He also wore dark brown cargo pants, with plenty of hidden pockets. Sarutobi was planning on teaching Naruto seals, but hasn't yet so he put a scroll seal in the pockets and told Naruto how to use them. He also felt that the headband would clash with Naruto's outfit, being lighter in color, so he gave Naruto a new cloth for it, which was also dark green. Since Naruto didn't want to dye his hair just yet, only wanting to do so on extremely sensitive missions, he decided pull the cloth of his headband over his head, acting as a bandana.

He wanted to take the changes slowly, as to not cause a scene with him being completely different. But it had been two weeks since he saw anyone other than the Hokage, Anbu, or a prisoner. So he decided to show changes that would have occurred from being in prison. Changes such as learning to blend in better. He could hide pretty well in the orange thing, but he wanted to see how much better it was in the new outfit and with skills he had been hiding from others.

Naruto was to go to training ground three to meet his sensei and teammates, who Sarutobi refused to reveal to him. The only hint the old man would give him was that his day was going to be filled with surprise. 'Well, no matter who they are I hope they like plants. Cause I have an obsession with them.' Most people thought Naruto was obsessed with ramen. They were kinda right, he did like ramen, but the only reason he tolerated eating so much of it was to test the herbs that Teuchi and Ayame, the stall owner and his daughter, put on the ramen. He was to tell them if the combination was good then later try it on other things as a taste tester, and was even paid for it. They hired him to do this after he mentioned the name of several of the herbs and spices and told them what they could possibly go with.

By doing this Ichiraku's Ramen became a chain restaurant called Yon Kaze no Kyuuden, loosely translated to Palace of the Four Winds*2. It was a high end restaurant that had reservations. It let Naruto, no matter which country it was in, eat for free. All others had to pay, except for orphans, as they were allowed to eat but had to clean their dishes and or any messes they made while there, the restaurant acting kind of like being in a family house for them. Naruto planned on going to every country some day to make sure all the restaurants were up to code.

As he was thinking about these things he came upon the training field and noticed two people waiting there. One was Sakura Haruno and the other was the brooding Mr. Duck Butt Sasuke Uchiha. Naruto could have sworn he was told to show up at 7:30 a.m. for a team meeting, and if so, where was the jonin? Was he ambushed? Did the Hokage keep him in a meeting longer because of Naruto? Or did Naruto mis hear the time? Well, he really wanted to know. Naruto hated disrespect, and wasn't about to let his sensei disrespect him. He lightly coughed into his hand, getting the attention of his new teammates.

"Um, hello. I think I'm your new teammate. Do you know where our sensei is?" He asked politely.

"Naruto? Finally trying to look cool huh? It isn't gonna work, I like Sasuke."

"Hn….He's always two or three hours late." Sakura looked at Sasuke like he was worth angering Kami to worship and began daydreaming about him, while Naruto looked at her and said,

"Why in the hell would I like you? You're rude, mean, and attracted to fairytale thoughts."

"Why you!" Sakura began marching towards him, fist raised.

"I'm stating a truth Haruno. You assume Sasuke will come to your rescue and immediately fall for you even though it's quite clear he does _not_ like fangirls. Maybe if you'd work a little more on your skills instead of your appearance other people would notice you, including Sasuke. Not as an attractive person, but a person they can protect and be protected by." Sakura stopped short and looked to Sasuke for confirmation. He looked away, not even giving her a glance. She went back to her spot on the bridge and sat down, looking into the water, not saying anything.

"So….Sasuke. You said he's always late? You realize that would only have a few reasons right?"

"Hn?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Well, one, he is in a meeting with higher ups such as the hokage, two, he is saving and or helping a citizen with something that is clearly out of their hands, or three, he disrespects all of us." Sasuke raised the other eyebrow and thought on that, Sakura didn't move from where she was but by the straightening of her back Naruto could tell she was thinking about it too.

"Either way if he gives an answer I don't like I'm leaving. I refuse to stay near someone who will disrespect me, let alone fight with them."

"I think that will be enough Mr. Uzumaki." Naruto turned to stare at Kakashi Hatake, the infamously late jonin, who was surprisingly only half an hour late, but still late, "If you must know I was in a meeting with the Third about your joining the team, and your special conditions."

"You say 'conditions' like it's a bad thing. I only know of one and in the eyes of those around me, yes, it is a bad thing. But what are the other 'conditions'?

"Well, you just proved one of them. The Third told me you went through a lot when you were….ehem….stuck, and it changed you quite a bit. He mentioned a totally different personality with hints of your old self and a more ninja like thinking." Naruto looked at him and just blinked. Inside his mind he was doing backflips with joy, Kyuubi laughing at him the entire time. 'Thank you Sarutobi! You let me have a bit of freedom faster!'

"Kakashi sensei, what do you mean by 'stuck'?"

"That would be none of your business Haruno." Naruto said. Kakashi nodded and decided to do introductions.

"Well, now that that is over, I'm going to tell you all a little about myself and you tell me a little about yourselves. My name is Kakashi Hatake, I like a lot of things and dislike only one thing. My dream is to raise all of you to be something like the next sannin or better. Alright, you Sakura."

"I'm Sakura Haruno, I like….um, well I'm still rethinking that, same with dislikes. My dream….um, I don't know."

"Ok, now you Sasuke."

"Hn….Sasuke Uchiha, I like nothing in particular and dislike fangirls. My dream is to revive my clan and figure out why it was wiped out in the first place."

"Alright, Naruto, your turn."

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki. I like my plants and dislike those who destroy or diss them. My dream is to someday start my own village." Kakashi looked at them all, Sakura had her head down, probably thinking over her goals, Sasuke was looking at Naruto in surprise, and Naruto was looking at a watch he had on his wrist.

"Well, I think that's a wrap, why don't we begin. I'm going to give you all a figurative problem that could happen on the battlefield, then act it out with shadow clones based on your answer." He created five shadow clones, transforming three of them to look like his students, and one to look like a bandit. "Here's the problem. You and your squad over there are on a C class mission to fight bandits, but it's revealed that the last one standing is an S-class missing nin. What is your plan, Sakura?"

"Um, wouldn't you be able to take him out Kakashi sensei?" Kakashi had the clones fight each other, simulating a real battle the A-class Kakashi was killed and the S-class nin lived.

"I would have died fighting head on, or been incapacitated and you three would be left. What would you do in the current situation, Sasuke?"

"Hn….Dunno, I'd probably ask Naruto." Naruto looked over at the clones, then looked to be thinking, he looked straight at the other two and said,

"One of us would have to be a decoy and let the other two get away. The one who does would probably die, but if they did things right and used all tricks, they could distract the guy long enough for the other two to be far enough away that they might not be caught. It's a lose lose situation right now for us at our skill levels." Kakashi let the clones act it out, having the other two run in circles around the training field and going to a post that had 'Konoha' etched in to it. Just before they could reach it however the Sakura clone got tired, the Sasuke clone tried to get her to go and the nin clone killed both of them.

"Good eye, Naruto, and Sasuke, good of you to ask a teammate for advice."

"So, now what?" Naruto asked.

"Well, now, you are my team. We'll have to work on strategy as a definite but for right now we're going to work on teamwork. I have three bells tied in various spots on my body, one at the waist, one on my left wrist and one on my right ankle. In order to get these bells you all have to work together. If none of you get a bell by the time limit or if I still have one bell on me the whole team is disqualified, meaning I will send all three of you back to the reserves to be used as fodder."

 ***1 Think of Link's Tunic from Legend of Zelda, a little darker and short as a t-shirt, not a tunic.**

 ***2 For my sanity's sake lol**

 **By the way, Like I said to sabba5600, if you don't like the teams, which for now are normal, send me a list of the team you want to be in there or just two people you specifically want together in a team and i'll see if it will fit in with the story later on.**

 **Example: Two people - Sasuke and Naruto. (I'll choose the other two members)**

 **A team - Kakashi, Hinata, Naruto and Ino. (I'll see if I can make it work) These two are only examples. XD Not the groups chosen, so ….yeah :)**


	5. Misunderstandings

**Sabba5600: Lol, I totally agree, she needed a reality check and Kakashi wasn't up to it. (She may still have relapses though, minor ones.) And yes actually I'm thinking about a few characters I may do pairings with, I'll put the list at the bottom for ya, but they probably won't show immediate interest until I get the team situation checked out.**

 **Hoytti: I like the Hinata, Naruto, Ino and Kurenai team, I might just be able to work with that. I'll have to check later with the other ones though, good idea :D**

 **To all: I'll be doing a pairing poll and a team poll at the bottom. You can add pairings or teams, and yes, if there is a tie (whether it be boy or girl or one of each) Naruto will have a crush on both, but only one will be chosen later :) But for now, I'm only going to do the gender part. You can mention names also, that way I have an idea of who to add in.**

 **Misunderstandings (Ch. 5)**

(One month time skip)

During a month of Naruto being a ninja he and his team worked on teamwork, in Kakashi's terms. Teamwork, for Kakashi, was a term of torture and agony for Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. Over that time they made strategies and shared some of their home life, Naruto speaking about his plants, Sasuke about training, Sakura about getting a training field set up near her home and Kakashi about his ninja summons, the dogs. They had also learned how to climb trees and walk on water with chakra. Today however they were supposed to have a tournament with the other rookie genins and one of the older teams led by a jonin named Guy.

They were to wait in training ground four for the other teams to show up, as they were the closest team to it. Kakashi, wearing a normal jounin outfit of blue suit and green vest, and Naruto, wearing a dark green tee-shirt, dark brown cargo pants and a headband covering his head like a bandana, got up into trees in order to read and sleep respectively. Sakura, who was wearing a darker red, almost black dress, black shorts and a styled bandana head band, leaned against a tree reading a theory scroll and Sasuke, who now wore a dark blue high collared shirt and black pants, sat near the base of Naruto's tree, reading a clan scroll. The only differences between the three genins headbands were both Sasuke and Sakura's headbands were blue, while Naruto's was dark green, and Sakura and Naruto had their headbands fashioned to be bandanas while Sasuke kept his around his forehead, as his hair was already dark. Eventually one by one teams started showing up.

First was Kurenai Yuuhi's team. Kurenai, the last time Naruto had seen her, was a chunin. She was recently promoted to special jonin because of her skills in the field of genjutsu. She wore a dress that seemed to be made of bandages that had one long red sleeve. Her team consisted of two boys a girl, like most teams. The only other female of the team was the shy Hinata Hyuuga, a blueish black haired girl who wore a beige jacket with a fuzzy bottom a size too big for her, blue pants and blue ninja sandals. The two boys were each to the side of her. To her left was Kiba Inuzuka a brown haired boy who wore a light grey jacket that had black fluff on the ends of the sleeves and around the hood. He also had red tribal 'fang' tattoos on his face, a sign of the Inuzuka and his partner, a little white dog, which was on his head, named Akamaru.

The last and final member, and the least remembered member of the team, was Shino Aburame. He had brown hair and a coat like shirt on with a high collar, hiding his mouth, and brown pants, he, like Kiba, Hinata and Kurenai, was also wearing blue ninja sandals. His companions, which Naruto secretly loved for their plant helping properties, were Kikaichu, a destructive beetle that could suck the chakra out of an enemy in minutes. As they fully entered the clearing Kakashi jumped down from the tree and greeted Kurenai, while the genin went over to Sasuke and Sakura, speaking to them.

"W-where's N-Naruto?" Hinata asked shyly after a few minutes.

"Eh? Oh him….He's in that tree over there,"Sakura pointed to the tree Naruto was resting in. "He said he wanted to get some sleep before we all fought, somethin' about tending to new plants all night." Hinata nodded and went to sit under Naruto's tree, eventually Shino came and sat down next to her.

Next out of the woodwork was Asuma Sarutobi and his team, the Ino-Shika-Cho combination. He was a chain smoker like his father, except he used cigarettes not pipes. The dark brown haired man was also a former Fire Guardian of the Daimyo, and wore a sash representing that around his waist. He wore the typical outfit of a jonin also, a blue long sleeved shirt and pants, with a green vest covering it. He, like Kurenai and Kakashi, was also wearing his headband on his head, but unlike Kakashi, neither he nor Kurenai had theirs tilted over one eye.

His team consisted of a platinum blond haired girl, one Ino Yamanaka, a purple half shirt and skirt wearing girl and two boys who were the complete opposites of each other; Shikamaru Nara had dark brown/black hair and was skinny, wearing only a fishnet shirt with a half short sleeved jacket and black pants; and Choji Akimichi, a 'big boned' (for authors' fear of saying the f word o_o), lighter brown haired boy who wore a white shirt with a red symbol on it, brown shorts, a green jacket and a white scarf. He also had faint red swirls on his cheeks. All wore blue ninja sandals and headbands. Although Shikamaru had his head band on his arm, Ino around her waist and Choji's was pulled over the middle of his head, giving the appearance of having blue undies on his head.

Last but not least, but certainly the most freaky, was Gai Maito, or as they called him Might Guy or just Guy. The awake genin didn't know which was worse, Guy, or his mini me Lee Rock. Both males wore a green jumpsuit with orange legwarmers with a red headband tied around their waists. The only difference was Guy's jonin vest which was left open to show the jumpsuit. Neji Hyuuga was his other male student. He was a long brown haired boy with a look of superiority on his face. He wore a beige short sleeved shirt and dark grey shorts and the traditional headband and ninja shoes. His head band had two tassels on the front with buckles at the end though. The last member was the only female of the team, a girl named Tenten. She wore a pink and red chinese shirt with dark green pants and like Neji the blue nin shoes and headband.

Kakashi looked up at the tree Naruto was in and calmly yelled out,

"Naruto, come down so we can start." No sound was heard. "Sasuke, can you go up and get him, he's probably passed out cold. Sasuke nodded and walked up the side of the tree, not even surprising the other genin, who have all learned the exercise two weeks into being teams. A few minutes after disappearing into the foliage he jumped back down with Naruto slung over his shoulder and slowly put him down next to Hinata, who was still sitting at the base of the tree with Shino. She blushed several shades of pink and red, until Shino leaned over and whispered something into her ear that seemed to calm her down. Naruto groaned and sat up shortly after, missing the somehow comfortable branch that had disappeared for the harder, colder ground.

"Glad to see you with us blondie." Asuma said around his ever present cigarette. Ino glared at him, then saw the look Naruto had on his face. He yawned.

"Good to see you too Inverted Spitfire sensei." Asuma did a double take while Shikamaru silently chuckled, having immediately got the joke. A few minutes later Asuma got his wits back and said,

"What does that mean…."

"It means you breathe in fiery death, and breathe out smoke and air, instead of the other way around, hence inverted."

"Oh….I think I'll just call you Naruto from now on, that way you are shoving my mortality rate down my throat every time we talk…." Naruto nodded and turned to Hinata,

"Hi Hinata, nice to see you again." Hinata blushed furiously but muttered a short 'hello' back. She was still lacking a bit in confidence.

"K, I think thats enough chattering, time to fight." Kakashi lazily spoke, reading an orange book that Kurenai was glancing murderously at, same as Tenten. Sakura, Ino and Hinata didn't seem to notice it, or know what it was, so, being naturally curious as a 'fox' Naruto asked, quite innocently, if he could read it. He then took it from Kakashi, plopped down next to Hinata who looked over at the book. Almost immediately after reading the first sentence in their heads Hinata passed out with a massive blush on her face while Naruto just stared, wide eyed with his mouth open.

"Naruto? Are you alright?" Sakura waved her hand in front of his face, when suddenly his head pitched forward and rested on his chest, dropping the book into his lap. By then Kakashi was sweating bullets and inwardly swearing at what the Hokage would do to him, or worse, Naruto, if he wasn't a vegetable now.

"Kakashi! My eternal rival! I think you have permanently damaged your youthful students mind!" Guy yelled. His mini me agreeing. Fluidly and kind of like a marionette doll Naruto stood up, head still bowed, eyes unseen and began shaking a bit. "Look at this youthful child, he is shaking with disbelief and in trauma at what he has seen, not to mention what it may have done to the youthful Hinata!" Kakashi blinked, and started to back away from Kurenai who was walking towards him with a deadly looking frying pan that she got from Kami knows where.

"You…." Naruto whispered. That whisper was enough to get the attention of all of the ninja in the area, even Hinata, who had just woken up. He threw his head up and looked into Kakashi's eyes, fury written all over it. "You are a DISGRACE TO THIS VILLAGE HATAKE! Do you even understand how this could have screwed up our lives! This book is not for children, ninja or not be damned! You hath tainted our minds and ye shall be punished!" Naruto yelled, eyes getting whiter by each word. He lept at Kakashi and knocked the unsuspecting jonin to the ground. Kakashi tried defending himself while muttering obscenities, making Naruto shout more about him 'tainting' their minds with words children should not know. What Kakashi didn't know was that Naruto, unlike Hinata, assumed the book was teaching males to rape their female counterparts, not how to be sleazy and have lots of sex. Guy, who was closest, finally got Naruto off of Kakashi and calmed him down. Lee then spoke,

"Youthful comrade! That book may have been unyouthful, but it is most unyouthful to attack a fellow comrade, especially a sensei!"

"I wasn't planning on attacking him 'till I knew he read that...that filth!" Asuma picked up the book from the ground.

"Well yea, its Icha Icha, children aren't supposed to read it. It's for adults who explore, or something…" He left off as Kurenai gave him an evil, pain promising look.

"From what I read it looked like it was teaching males to rape their female counterparts! Or at least encouraging it. No female wants to be raped! Don't the idiots who read this and the moron who made it understand that!" He half yelled back, pointing at the orange book. "No, wait, they probably don't, no wonder they still read it. Unless they actually do understand it and agree….Raaaaggghhh!" Naruto leapt for Kakashi again, while Guy held him back.

"N-Naruto you don't understand! The book isn't about raping women! It's about having, ehem...relations...with them. You know, like a mommy and daddy do…" Naruto blinked, stopped struggling, then gagged….a lot. Guy let him go and Naruto yelled,

"EEEEEEEEWWWWWW! Cooties!" Kurenai, Guy, Kakashi and Asuma cracked up laughing. _He's completely serious._ thought a hysterical Asuma. _He was completely devoted to killing Kakashi one minute for a book, then freaked out by cooties of all things the next. Reminds me of Anko, I like this kid._ Kurenai thought. Hinata, Ino and Tenten's thoughts were around the same as Kurenai's, but without Anko in them, mostly how nice that was.

"Alright, alright. Stop laughing at me! Can we please do this training now?" Naruto practically yelled.

 **Hey, I'm a little late but here is the pairing and team polls.**

 **Example of poll: Sasuke: Girl, boy, both, none?**

 **Example of answer: Sasuke: Both - (Name of boy(s) and girl(s)) Can be anyone in the anime or manga. I'll find out who they are if I don't already know.**

 **Pairings: Boy, girl, both, none?**

 **Sasuke? Naruto? Sakura? Kakashi?**

 **Hinata? Kiba? Shino? Kurenai?**

 **Ino? Shikamaru? Choji? Asuma?**

 **Lee? Tenten? Neji? Guy?**

 **Team Poll: Example: Naruto, Sakura, Ino and Asuma or Kurenai, Kiba, Sasuke and Choji. (Just random teams, or those you wanna see.)**

 **One team that was mentioned was Kurenai, Hinata, Ino and Naruto. I personally like Naruto, Shino, Shikamaru and Anko, but I can deal with anything lol Here's a list of teams mentioned. Please vote or add a team :) and remember, they don't even have to have Naruto in them.**

 **Kurenai, Hinata, Ino and Naruto:**

 **Anko, Shikamaru, Shino and Naruto:**

 **Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura and Shikamaru:**

 **Asuma, Shino, Kiba and Choji:**


	6. Precursor

**I'm back, sorry for takin' so long, just realized how much being a senior sucks. Meetings for physicals, teacher conferences, Masonry competitions, job training and getting federal help for college….all in three days. Eeeerggh Anyone that wants to help with the character drawings is welcome, I can give full apparel lists. Ty!**

 **Sabba5600: I kind of like the Kurenai team too. I'm going to use your Kurenai team and Hoytti's Asuma team, the Kakashi team will just end up with the leftovers lol. I can kind of see Anko as having an apprentice. And yes I will attempt to get Fuu in there, just gotta figure out when and how :D With Kakashi, I bet I can make other ones work, if I think of another person for the pairing you'll be in for a surprise, if not, Anko lol :) With Asuma/Kurenai….yeah lol the Choji/Ino pairing, I could see, I could also see him with Karui if Ino doesn't work out. I can definitely see Kiba with Hinata and as for Lee, I dunno, maybe Tenten or somethin...hmmm…**

 **Precursor (Ch. 6)**

For the next few months Kakashi and his not so new team went on D-rank missions, which Naruto seemed to personally like, but his teammates did not. Naruto seemed to like learning new plants or fixing up gardens for people. The mission he seemed to like the most was capturing Tora, the fire Daimyo's wife's cat. The cat absolutely hated his team the first time they met, but Naruto pulled out a can of tuna from Wave country and the cat was instantly on him cuddling. He, Sasuke and Sakura were confused but eventually gave up figuring out where Naruto pulled random things from anymore.

Tora, or as Naruto called him, the cute little fuzzy ball of love, was forced to live with a woman who did not respect the animal. She would squeeze him and stroke the poor cat way too hard, making it miserable and angry. Truly it wasn't a surprise when he figured out Naruto had woken up in the middle of the night to find Tora scratching at his door, begging to be hid from the vile woman. The morning after Naruto told him that he had been found sleeping in a clearing with a purring Tora on his stomach by the aforementioned woman. She at first did not wake him up, instead opting to watch the 'little blond kid' sleep peacefully with her precious 'Tora-chan'. Tora eventually sensed danger in the form of a fairly large woman leaning over to pick him up and bolted, scratching Naruto's face in the process. After an hour and a half of trying to retrieve her cat, the woman finally gave up and suggested Naruto take the cat, as it seemed to like him more, and that's how Tora became Naruto's new ninja animal. (nin-ken?)

Other than that they also had two, month long C-rank missions and were about to go on their third one. The first one, in Wave country, was Kakashi's nightmare, being as it changed to an A-rank mission halfway through, and ended up with them eventually fighting a nukenin by the name of Zabuza. The second was to Takigakure, a village hidden by a waterfall. The village itself was beautiful, but according to Naruto, something more amazing resided within the village. The only hint he would give to his teammates was that Ms. Seven looks like heaven. Kakashi wondered who Ms. Seven was.

Right now they were going to get their promised third C-rank mission, thanks to Naruto's bet with the Third, who lost, unsurprisingly. He watched as Sasuke tried to get away from a less frantic Sakura, who wanted to know his favorite color for some reason, come to think of it she had asked him that too, but he never told her. Hmmm… well then.

"Sasuke, come on, tell me what it is! Please, come on I've already asked Kakashi, and after I ask you I need to get Naruto's."

"Hnn, just ask Naruto already, I don't have a favorite color." Naruto was petting Tora, who was perched on his shoulder.

"Oh, come on everyone has a favorite color. I bet you don't wanna tell me because you think it's girly. Or you're already wearing it. Well you are wearing a dark blue shirt all the time, and now its always black pants, is it black, blue or just any dark color? Oh, please tell me its not fuschia pink! That would be horrendous!" Sasuke flinched and mumbled the word blue.

"Mine's dark green. Beautiful, yet vibrant, just like Ms. Seven."

"There he goes again." Sakura deadpanned while Naruto spouted off about how wonderful 'Ms. Seven' was when he met her, whoever she was. Kakashi shook his head,

"We're here my cute genin." Sakura deadpanned again at his words. 'Cute' was his term for trained killers, she wondered what his ninken were to him. They walked into the mission room and waited for the Third to begin speaking.

"Ah, Kakashi, I see you've brought your team in for their mission. Now I have only one available right now, but this mission's rules are specific and important. Once you accept you can not decline the missions' parameters." Kakashi started to sweat, the last time he was told that he agreed all too hastily and had to dress up as a female in a whore house that week.

"What are the parameters? If I may ask…."

"All you have to do on this mission, is have Naruto cover his hair, the entire time. Meaning even while sleeping or in the shower. Sakura can cover hers too, but hers is optional, same for you Kakashi." Naruto pointed to his bandana headband and said,

"We don't really have to worry about that since I wear this every day."

"Yes, Naruto, but you take yours off when you shower and sleep. On the mission you can't as it will compromise the mission, resulting in failure." The Third explained.

"I'm still wondering why it would compromise the mission. The only place that those parameters would be able to screw up a ….mission….is...No! We cannot go there, I don't think they would be ready if the parameters were compromised!" Hiruzen shook his head.

"You will be travelling close to it but are not to enter the country. You will be informing your team of the reasoning of the parameters and why you are not entering the neighboring countries if you are to accept this mission. The mission is to a small village just beyond Ishi. It is a straight and narrow path from Konoha, no deviations into the neighboring countries are allowed without reasonable priorities. Do you understand and accept the mission." Kakashi looked to his students, all three were nodding at him, eventually even Tora joined in, meowing once in a while to urge him to say yes.

"Yes, sir. I understand and accept the mission, along with its parameters."

"Good, you are dismissed. Speak with your genin, you have two weeks to set off for the mission." Kakashi nodded and immediately ushered his three genin out of the room. He brought them to the Hokage monument and brought them to a hidden entrance for special meetings and evacuation in case of attack.

"Alright." He said, getting serious with his genin. "Here's the deal. The mission we just accepted is to exterminate a pest located in a village on the direct path from Konoha. It sounds easy to get to and finish, but the problem is where exactly this village is located. The village we are headed to is located in between the borders of Suna….and Iwa. Iwa as you all may know is still in bad terms with Konoha since the last ninja war. The village is just past Ishi, one of the major neutral cities in between the two countries. This little village is a so called no man's land, where nothing will grow and no one wants to live, it's been used as a battleground by Iwa and Suna when we were fighting them in the Third Shinobi World War." He paused. "In two days we will be heading out, in the time before we go I'm going to make sure you all have the gear you'll need for a two month mission, show you how to naturally disguise yourselves and give you ample time to say goodbye to your family or friends." They nodded in agreement. "You can all go now, come back here at five o'clock with your gear and we'll see what you may or may not need."

As the genin ran off to do whatever they pleased Kakashi went home to get his doomsday checklist, one he specifically made for missions like this. He was worried he may get something near Iwa and he had to make sure Naruto would not be hunted down for being a blonde from Konoha. Sakura immediately went home and packed what she thought suitable for the mission and told her mother of it, then headed over to Ino's training ground to tell her of her new mission. Sasuke went home, packed his supplies and walked out back to his home to train. Naruto immediately went to the academy and told Iruka of his mission and said his farewells to Konohamaru, Moegi and Udon. He then went home and checked each and every one of his plants before packing supplies for the mission. Afterwards he headed to his garden, something about it had been bugging him for a while and he wasn't quite sure what it was. While he was gardening, Sasuke training and Kakashi having a mental breakdown into Anbu mode Sakura was talking to Ino, who she found on the way to her training ground.

"So you're going on another C-rank mission huh? Man I wish Shika and Choji were more active so we could go on more C-ranks, but Asuma-sensei is lazy too…You're so lucky Forehead." Sakura shook her head.

"No, we're not, we have to go to a country that's close to Iwa. The most hostile country to the people of Konoha right now."

"True, true, but hey, at least Sasuke-kun will be there to protect you."

"True….Hey! I can protect myself….If anything I'll need to protect Naruto, he froze up on our first mission in a dangerous situation, what if he does it again?" They arrived at team ten's training field and Sakura said goodbye to Ino, and left.

"What was that about?" Shikamaru asked lazily.

"Forehead's team has a new mission, another C-rank, but..." Asuma leaned up from the tree he was slumped against, "This time they are going to be travelling for two months to a village just between Iwa and Suna. Why can't we ever do missions that sound that badass?"

"Ino, that mission is not a joke, nor is it badass. Iwa is on a very thin line with Konoha, practically on the brink of war. Not to mention Naruto is a _blonde male_ , going extremely close to a place that was almost decimated by our _blonde male_ Hokage. They would take it wrong seeing a blond male Konoha ninja that close to their country, which could result in a war."

"Iwa wouldn't start a war over something as stupid as that…." Asuma looked down and shook his head.

"Ino, wars have been started over far, far less."


	7. Nin-Neko!

**Hello! Sorry to have kept ya'll waiting. I've been quite busy lately. (College) But I'm back and still refuse to give up on this story so long as I have inspiration, which considering the topic, will be hard to not go through with :D Anyway, enjoy!**

 **Sabba5600: Lol, yeah, that last chapter was just a precursor to this one, I didn't know how to start it really, so that's what happened lol.**

 **Nin-neko! (Ch. 7)**

Four ninjas were in training ground seven. This wouldn't seem out of the ordinary in a ninja village, but to the civilians it was a shame. Putting three preteen children with an adult over seeing them was quite normal in daycares and schools, but these children were going to be fighting tooth and nail, literally, and in battle with foreign 'terrorists' nonetheless. Civilians passing near training ground seven today would stop and stare though, which was highly unusual. The object of their viewing? Sakura pulling Sasuke's bangs while he glared his patent Uchiha glare at her, and also trying to poke her in the eye. Kakashi was knocked out in the background and Naruto laying over his chest, also unconscious, both had bruises on them, Kakashi's on his forehead, Naruto's on the front of his neck. 'How did this happen?' You might be wondering.

Well about twenty minutes before Naruto had met up with Sakura and Sasuke at their current location and as they waited for Kakashi to show up to train them and show them the equipment needed for their mission tomorrow. Bored out of their minds, and not wanting to waste energy training that could be used in the spars later with Kakashi, they began showing each other what they thought would be good for the mission. Sasuke went first, naturally, not really, Naruto nominated him to go first because his brother used to be Anbu and because Sakura wanted to wait to show off her stuff to her precious love, in the hopes that her battle ready-ness would woo him. 'Cha!' Her subconscious yelled, 'This time for sure!' Sasuke shivered, remembering suddenly the urge to let Naruto talk to Sakura about being a ninja again.

He showed the both of them the gear he had brought, standard stuff like fifty kunai and shuriken each, along with a pack of explosive notes, a roll of chakra wire and four sets of clothes, the fifth being the one he was wearing. Next Naruto went, Sakura claiming that since she was the only girl she deserved to decide when she wanted to go. He pulled pretty much the same thing out of his pants pockets as Sasuke had in his bag, except Naruto also had three bandanas, along with the one on his head, four detachable hoods, and several face masks, all in dark greens and blues. He also, for some reason, had a bright sky blue notebook, which had a picture of a translucent field of flowers printed on the front and a strange symbol on the back. Naruto immediately put the book back and next came Sakura's turn.

"The hell….?" Naruto and Sasuke said in unison. Sakura had pulled out kunai and shuriken, as was standard, and a jutsu scroll on chakra control that they sort of expected, the same with four extra outfits for the mission. The last thing she pulled out of the bag, however, was just ridiculous and strange, especially for her. It was a purse, and not a small dinky thing you hide money in, no, no. It was a large shoulder bag filled with makeup, female products (which was understandable), and other extremely unnecessary things, such as a book on 'How to seduce the man you love" which creeped all three boys out, Kakashi was watching in the tree, to the extent that Kakashi fell out of his tree and hit his head on the ground, knocking himself out. Naruto leaned over him and looked back at Sakura,

"I think it killed him, that book, I mean." Sakura shook in anger at the comment and threw a hairbrush at Naruto, which hit him in the throat. She and Sasuke then got into a verbal fight which became a hair pulling one for Sakura, and an eye poking one for Sasuke. Meanwhile Naruto choked from the brush hitting his windpipe and passed out over Kakashi. This was the scene that Kakashi awoke to. He was, understandably, not pleased in the slightest.

"Sakura! Sasuke! Stand down, immediately!" He yelled. The two froze in their 'fight' and stood back from each other. "What happened to Naruto?" Sakura looked sheepish and admitted what she had done to him, and after a healing jutsu from Kakashi, which he intended to teach them later, Naruto woke up.

"Alright, team, I've seen what all of you carry, and most of it is good. Sakura, you can NOT have that book on you however, or the bag, you'll need to carry that in a scroll. I'll teach you all that right now actually, so that you won't have to lug all of it around while on the mission tomorrow."

Early and tiring, dark and lukewarm outside. This is what it felt like in Konoha at dawn. Team seven was waiting at the village gates for two of their members, Sakura speaking in low grouchy tones with an equally agitated guard who had yet to be relieved from duty. Sasuke leaned against stall the guard was positioned in and noticed four figures coming towards them. Sakura looked up when she heard light the light clacks of ninja sandals against stone and noticed Naruto, Kakashi and two unfamiliar men walking towards them.

"Hello everyone! Hayate, your replacements are here by the way." Kakashi chirped, entirely too happy for someone up at, what Sakura thought was, the most ungodly hour. He checked their scrolls and packs once more and they set off after speaking to the new gate guards, Izumo and Kotetsu. Walking away from the village as the air around them warmed up seemed nostalgic to all of them, but none more than Naruto, who was eyeing the plants coming to life in the presence of the live giving light hitting them. Along the way to the village they were to stay the night at, a place called Amegakure, they encountered a few bandits trying to steal from merchants and even themselves, but nothing that would danger them to bad.

Amegakure was wet. Very wet. And it would not stop raining, like at all. Staying the night was peaceful as there were no thunderstorms and lightning, but the rain was always present, and was extremely miserable for Sakura, who couldn't get her hair to agree with her. Naruto's bandana kept slipping off his wet hair and Kakashi's hair sagged low enough make him look like a girl with very short hair. Sasuke's hair stayed the same, somehow, his hair was either stubborn, or natural that way….strange. As morning came they got ready to leave the village, thanking the innkeeper as they left. Naruto noticed how the plant life in Ame grew far above the water on the ground, and with roots farther down into the soil, as the water level closer to the top was too much for them to survive. When they left, to Naruto's disappointment and Sakura's delight, Kakashi threw everyone a towel from his bag and let them dry off and fix their headbands/bandanas before they set off again.

Ishi was the next village in their path, and it was crawling with Iwa and Suna ninjas, along with the civilians from both countries. All of them, after hearing an hour long explanation from Naruto with pointers from Kakashi, were surprised to find that there was hardly any plant life nearby. This would next to impossible because of the closeness of Ame and it's nutrient filled rains, however it seemed that there wasn't going to be any plant life any time soon. Ishi was small enough to cover in two hours at genin running speed and by mid afternoon they were in the small country behind Ishi, which seemed to be a wasteland.

A lone hut stood in the middle of a large rocky patch of terrain, seemingly thrown together from random planks of wood and strips of animal furs. Kakashi walked up to it, motioning the genin to stay behind him for safety. He knocked on a piece of wood near the entrance and stepped back. The door opened slowly and a very old man shuffled out.

"Hello….I have been, expecting you ninjas, for quite a while now."

"Ah, then you are the client. I was worried we made a wrong turn!" Kakashi chuckled. The old man shook his head, smiling lightly.

"Young people….Anyway, there has been, a pest, bothering me lately. It hangs around, here...somewhere." The man said slowly, regaining his breath with each pause.

"Like, underground? Cause I don't see anything for it to hide in around here other than that." Naruto observed. The old man looked at him, then said,

"Boy, come here. You look….familiar." Naruto got closer to the man, who pulled him in close and looked into his eyes. "Hmm….extremely familiar. You have, the looks of a second cousin of mine, or maybe, it's just my old mind, playing tricks." He wheezed. Naruto backed up a bit and the man pointed to the left of his shack and said.

"Over there was, where I last, saw the creature." Naruto handed the man Tora, then he and Kakashi paired up, while Sakura latched onto Sasuke to search near him. After an hour of not finding anything they noticed the old man walking towards them with a tray of drinks. He was walking slowly and the cups were clattering with each shaky step he took on the rocky terrain. Naruto walked towards him, intending to help out when the ground in front of him exploded in a shower of rocks and sand, causing the poor frightened old man to drop his tray and drop to the ground.

When the sand cleared from the air they witnessed a stunningly beautiful creature holding Naruto into the air by the front of his shirt. It was at least seven and a half feet tall, standing on what looked like the hind legs of a quadrupedal creature. Naruto was looking down at it, struggling to get free. Kakashi prepared to throw a kunai at it, Sasuke preparing a fireball jutsu, when the creature turned it's eyes towards them, freezing them with an intent that they did not understand. It then lowered Naruto to its' eye level and stared into his eyes as he struggled. Suddenly he stopped struggling and fell limp, head falling back and lolling to the side. It turned around, showing a long slender tail and, with Naruto still in one hand, grabbed the old man, who had frozen along with the others, then dropped back into the earth in a flurry of rocks and sand.

"What just….happened?" Sakura mumbled. Kakashi shook his head.

"I have, absolutely, no clue."

"Will the dobe be alright?" Sasuke asked, staring at the ground where the creature was, Tora was pawing at it furiously.

"We can only hope….Let's try to find an entrance." He muttered and began digging.

As the rest of team seven was digging above, Naruto was being held like a small child by the creature that had taken him. The old man sat across from it, watching in wonder as the creature seemed to coo at the boy cradled in its' arms. He thought the boy looked familiar, the only reason this creature would attach itself in such a fashion to someone was if they were from the people of old who used to live in the area. He did not have to wait long to figure that one out as the creature slid the boys' bandana off and started to comb through his hair, looking for something. As soon as it found what it was looking for it shot a look towards him and motioned him to come closer.

He slowly shuffled closer to the creature and the boy in its' arms. When he got close enough it slightly put the boy's head closer to him and pointed to a spot on his head, hidden by his hair. He reached over and moved the boys hair around until he caught sight of what the creature was pointing at, there was a small, hardly noticeable light blue splotch in the shape of a demented circle with hooks on it on the boys skin. The old man realized he was right. The boy WAS from the clans that used to live in this area and possibly did not even know it.

Suddenly, dirt began to fall into their little hole in the ground and when the dust cleared the old man saw the other members of the ninja team he had hired, the silver haired one quickly pulled him out of the hole and glared at the creature cuddling Naruto. He pulled out a kunai and ordered it to put the boy down. The creature growled at the sharp object and pulled Naruto closer to it, waking him. He looked up and gasped at the feline face of the creature.

It had no mouth, or nose for that matter. (How the hell'd it breathe?) It looked beautiful, like his baby Tora, only humanoid and tall. And it was purring….? Whaah? Naruto reached up and touched its face, where it's mouth was supposed to be, and figured out that it did have a mouth, it was just blended really well with the rest of it's face. It bent down and licked his cheek, making him laugh, his cheeks were sensitive after all.

"Naruto? Do you know what that thing is?" Kakashi asked. Naruto pulled his bandana back on.

"Nope, but it reminds me of Tora and Ms. Seven!" Que sweat drops from the entire team besides Naruto.

"Who is ...Ms. Seven boy? Another cat ...of yours?"

"She's the prettiest person in personality I've ever met. So wonderfully radiant in looks and she cooks the food of Kami!" He said whimsically, kind of like how Sakura acts around Sasu- (Shudder, bad reference -_-). The old man laughed.

"Looks like...you have a crush."

"A crush?" Naruto blushed and the cat thing began to purr again. He looked up at it and it cuddled him again, making him laugh. "Need air! Haha!"

"Dobe….why is it acting like that?" Naruto stopped struggling and looked at it closer then shrugged and hugged it back.

"I...can tell you why." The old man said. They all looked at him, except Naruto and the creature. "I believe...Naruto boy here might...be part of a clan." Sasuke quirked an eyebrow and Sakura had a look of disbelief on her face. "A clan that once lived...here, on this wasteland."

"People other than you used to live here?" Kakashi inquired. The man nodded.

"I keep their secrets...secret. Take a look at the mark...on the boys head. You'll see….that it matches the one in a book I have." He shuffled slowly back to his hut, going to retrieve the book. Kakashi looked at Naruto, who was untying his headband. When he got it off Kakashi looked through his hair, not finding the mark. The creature pointed to a spot on his head, prompting Kakashi to notice a small light blue demented circle on Naruto's head. The man had come back by then and handed Sasuke an open book, pointing at the same symbol in the book.

"That's on my head? No wonder I never noticed it. It says it's tiny, and with that color? I would have never noticed it." Naruto exclaimed.

"' _This clan is known for their love of plants, cats and nice people. They are ecstatic in certain areas and will talk for long periods of time on one topic that they most like.'_ " Sasuke read. They all dead panned and looked at Naruto.

"What? Is there something on my face? Did Ms. Seven leave a lipstick stain?...Wait, she doesn't wear lipstick." Everyone sweat dropped at that, even Tora and the cat creature.

"Naruto, this book describes you word for word…"

"No it doesn't. It forgot to mention that I'm a very secretive person!"

"' _The people in this clan are also extremely secretive in their ways'_...Really…" Cue another sweatdrop from Sasuke, who was still reading the book out loud.

"Hey! Old man, are you here?" A female voice called out. A girl about their age ran over and stopped at the scene before her. "Old man, who are these people?"

"The ninja...I hired to look for the thing that…has been troubling the village the last few weeks."

"Old man, you really can't call this a village anymore, now that everyone but you has left. That thing though? That was causing all this? It looks like a giant rat...and how the hell does it breathe? These 'ninja' obviously didn't defeat it, look, one of them was even caught by it. I don't understand why you would ask a Konoha scum to do this mission, let alone a group of them! They obviously can't do their jobs right."

"Kuro…" GRRRRRrrrrrr.

"You're not a rat girl…" Naruto patted the creatures face, it had interrupted the old man with a growl, showing a row of piranha like teeth. It stopped growling and cooed at Naruto, who hugged it's head to him and glared at the girl.

"Please apologize to her. She is not a rat and very sensitive about it."

"Che, as if. Old man, why didn't you just hire me to do the extermination job? This thing would have been long gone and not bothering you anymore if I had done the job. Then these people wouldn't have to have been anywhere near us." While she was talking Kakashi noticed the headband on her forehead. Iwa. He looked to Naruto and pointed at his forehead. Naruto understood immediately. _Keep your headband on_.

"Kuro-chan. I hired these ninja because none of our finest could even get the creature to show itself. I had hoped… that maybe a different type of...custom being used would draw it out…and it worked." 'Kuro' huffed and crossed her arms.

"They still didn't get rid of it like you said!"

"Ah, but they did….Kuro-chan. Can't you see how it's holding the...boy?"

"Yea, but maybe he's it's next meal! Can't you see it needs to be killed!" She pulled out a kunai and the creature growled again, holding Naruto tighter. She threw it and a flurry of rocks and dust went up into the air with a shout of surprise from him. When it cleared Naruto and the creature were no where to be seen.

 **Again I'm back. :D Cudos to anyone who has the imagination to draw the creature. More of it's description will come in later chapters :)**


	8. Nin-Neko! Pt 2

**Nin-neko Pt. 2 (Ch. 8)**

"Kurotsuchi! Stop this instant!" The old man yelled.

"But old man, don't you see? It took that Konoha scum to it's lair! It's obviously going to eat the idiot." She was furious. Couldn't her grandfather see that the idiot was a dead man when that...rat thing...got a hold of him. Konoha scum deserved no less, and she, a powerful _Iwa_ kunoichi was better than the ninja of Konoha, simply because she was not about to let him be attacked by a rat creature. These Konoha 'ninja', if they could be called that, were simply too stupid and weak to help her grandpa, who was almost, in her eyes, killed by that beast.

"Kuro-chan, I have seen how the creature...treats the boy firsthand." He said catching his breath after yelling. "I'm quite sure it will….not eat him."

"They let it catch you too! I swear to Kami, stupid Konoha scum! I'll flush this beast out instead." She began making hand signs. "This'll do it! Quicklime jutsu!" She touched the ground, turning it to limestone and sand that ate at everything around it.

"Kuro-chan, the ground it going...to collapse now!" She heard the sensei ordered his two remaining genin near the house and grabbed the her grandpa, jumping to them, the ground underneath where they stood previously capsized and left a shallow crater, except for one spot that was deeper. The creature burst from that spot and landed near the old man. The boy was unconscious, a bloody gash running along his forehead. The sensei took him and began to cover the wound.

"See, grandpa! I told you it would try to eat him!"

"Kuro-chan...If it were trying to eat him...it would not have given him over."

"He would be dead right now." The sensei added in.

"Did you _see_ the teeth on that thing?" The girl said unbelievingly. "It would have ripped his throat out if it wanted to kill him!"

"But it didn't do anything to the dobe. The only injury he has on him is from your jutsu. Che, idiot." Guess who…Kurotsuchi blushed in anger. They may have been right but that beast beside her grandpa was still dangerous. She wasn't about to let Konoha scum allow her grandpa to die because of their stupidity.

"I don't care what you say! Until that thing is either contained or dead, I won't hesitate to kill it at the first hostile move it makes!" She yelled back.

"That's better Kuro-chan. Now come help this...old man back into his home for medical supplies...while these fine folk here stop the bleeding on… that one's head." She grumbled as she helped him back into his shack. He sat on the bed and reached over to grab his medical supply kit.

"Grandpa Taiga, I don't understand. Grandpa Oonoki told me that all Konoha ninja were scum that can't save people. Why do you trust them so much. Iwa ninjas are more likely to help you than someone who doesn't even know you."

"My brother...has a grudge against one Konoha ninja...who's dead, and that ruined his view...and apparently yours...on all other Konoha ninja. Not all of them are styled that way...take Deidara for instance. He loved explosions...while other Iwa ninja's didn't have that enthusiasm. One Iwa ninja loving...explosions doesn't mean all….of us enjoy the destruction caused by them. It's the same with...Konoha, and other villages." She huffed.

"Fine. But I still don't trust that creature. Or the ninja."

"Fair enough. Now let's go patch up the boy." She helped him back outside. The girl had taken off her bandanna, showing pink hair up in a bun. She held it on the unconscious boys head, which was in her lap, keeping the blood flow down. All three of the conscious ninja looked nervous about something, and not the creature or the wound on his head either. It was something she couldn't place. Her grandpa got down on his knees in front of the boy and removed the girls hand, placing a small damp cloth over the wound.

"I need to remove the headband to get the entire wound stitched Ms. ….?"

"Sakura." Sakura looked to her sensei, asking the silent question. ' _What do I do?'_ Kakashi winced and gave in. ' _Let him.'_ They lifted Naruto up a bit and he untied the headband, showing off Naruto's blood soaked blond hair. Blond….from Konoha...and male...Kurotsuchi was livid, believing Konoha brought another reminder of their past war with them back and no further than a few miles from the city none the less! They were obviously trying to do something here, not just get rid of the pest that was looking at the boy with concern.

"Kuro-chan, calm yourself...your ki is harming the boy further." He said patting the gash down with antiseptic.

"But he's-"

"Not harming anyone Kuro-chan." He snapped at her. "He's not harming you, me or the folk of Iwa...so calm yourself." He was cleaning a needle and the thread attached to it with the antiseptic now. The boy had woken back up and was patting the creatures cheek, trying to calm it.

"This might sting a bit boy...I gotta stitch your forehead back up."

"Alrighty Ji-chan." Kurotsuchi bristled, how dare he call her grandpa that! He was her grandpa, not his. Her grandpa began to stitch the wound, Sakura was holding the boy's shoulders in case he moved. He didn't even flinch, just kept patting the creature's face or randomly making jokes to the other boy, who would scoff and remark back sarcastically.

"I think I know what you are." The boy remarked, staring at the rat thing. It was obviously a rat. There was no way it couldn't be. The color may be strange but it was obviously a rat. The 'rat' began to purr. She blanched, a purring rat….that is messed up. The boy smiled as bandages were put onto his head.

"You're a Savannah cat aren't you?" The 'cat' as he called it, kept purring, leaned down to his face and licked his cheek. ' _Holy Kami, it_ does _have a mouth!'_ She focussed back in to hear him laugh.

"Ah...Naruto, how is it a Savannah cat? I mean it has the coloring of one, but not only is it out of element, they grow big, but not that big…" The sensei stuttered lamely. 'Naruto' blinked, just getting that it wasn't possible.

"Hmm...Maybe she's a ninja hybrid or something. I hope she isn't in pain from growing that big."

"Che, I'm telling you, it's a giant rat. They're common in place where trash is present. It probably followed you from Konoha, already having eaten your stupid parents." Naruto put his head down, hands shaking in his lap. Sakura hugged him and the other boy glared at her. "What? I'm only stating a true possibility."

"Kuro-chan, that was too far."

"You brought parents into it. I can't believe you brought them into it. How stupid can you be girl!" Sasuke snarled. He looked to Naruto, who she could see was visibly shaking now, his face buried into Sakura's chest. Sakura was glaring at her too. She heard growling from that cat rat thing. It was baring some pretty impressive teeth, looked like piranha teeth.

"Kuro-chan, please leave. Go report whatever you want to Oonoki-otouto. I don't care, but you had best warn him that if he so much as tries anything to these fine ninja I will go through with the 'desolate Oonoki' threat." She huffed once more and turned her back on them, walking off towards Iwa. If she had turned around she would have seen Naruto turn and hug the cat creature around it's neck. It's eyes had grown large, the black almost overlapping the white, ready for the hunt.


	9. Maelstrom Firestorm of Cherry Blossoms

Mr. Fallen: There is not a name just yet, however what makes her up is shown in this chapter. I also tried to upload the picture of the mark on my page, but my computer seems to have a disagreement with fanfics, so...yea. I actually laughed making up her name. Haven't made the species name, but her name in general.

 **Maelstrom Firestorm of Cherry Blossoms (Ch. 9)**

Now that their mission was over they were returning home. The man bid them farewell, speaking with Naruto for an hour before they left and the creature followed them home, keeping a human like hand on Naruto's shoulder. Naruto himself had stopped crying minutes after Kurotsuchi left. Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi had teared up a bit as well hearing him cry, Sakura more so than Sasuke and Kakashi. It reminded them that while they at least had family to remember, he did not. Kakashi had a dead father and mother, Sasuke had an entire clan gone except a traitorous brother and Sakura had her living mother and father to help her through the tough parts, but Naruto had no family to help him, or remember, as far as they knew.

"Kakashi-sensei….Can we enter the Chunin exams coming up?" Naruto blurted out suddenly. Kakashi started, not expecting that particular question.

"W-what Chunin exams?" Naruto gave him a look that said, ' _I'm not stupid, I hang out in Ji-chan's office all the time.'_ "Right, uh, well team, there _is_ a Chunin exam coming up. It will be in Konoha this year and….if you prove you are ready to me within the next two weeks I will allow you all to go!" Naruto smiled widely and ran ahead.

"Bet I can beat you all to Konoha!"

"Hey Naruto! No fair, you got a head start!"

"Hn, you're on dobe!"

"Ah~ The joy of genin."

"Welcome back Team Seven." Iruka smiled warmly.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei! Ji-chan!" Sakura refrained from trying to get him to not call the Hokage that, she knew it was pointless.

"Mission go well I take it? Were there any problems with the location?" Kakashi looked straight into the Hokage's eyes.

"There is a possibly high _chance_...that theTsuchikagemayknowofNaruto…."

"Repeat that a little slower Hatake." Kakashi cringed.

"The Tsuchikage may know that Naruto is a blond male from Konoha…" Naruto looked back and forth between the two. He may have had to leave the intimidating female feline outside but he wasn't about to let that keep him from stopping this escalating situation. He got down on one knee.

"Hokage-sama, it's my fault, I should have asked that we leave immediately when we had the 'pest' problem under control, but instead I hesitated and an Iwa nin familiar with the client took our presence the wrong way."

"Naruto…"

Saiyu was a good person. She obliged by the rules, paid her rent on time, got a job and her own home, and worked her way, by being fair, into being the Hokage's secretary. She loved her work, and learned to deal with a lot of rude people, mostly civilian, but one or two ninja who didn't know her, or that she had been and still was in Anbu level capture, torture and interrogation. That's why when Team Seven came back from their latest C-rank mission with a new entity in tow, she just smiled and allowed them to leave it with her. She was naturally a good person.

It was feline, sort of. She wondered if it had traces of some type of smooth faced lizard too, because it's mouth blended in with it's face and she couldn't even tell if it had a nose. The creature was obviously a mutant of some sort. Poor thing was probably experimented on by a different country and dumped in the wilderness for being useless to them in politics or fighting.

She finished signing off a building permit for a new orphanage and looked up at the tall creature. Apparently one of the genin had given it a small red flower that littered one of the many flower fields that surrounds the forests of Konoha, which it had carefully between two fingers and was twirling back and forth, poking the petals with long slender fingers. She giggled a bit, reminded of the children she used to teach at the academy as a chunin.

"Do you like pretty flowers?" She asked it. It started at her sudden question, forgetting she was there. It looked back at the flower, then to her, and nodded. It actually understood her question! It had a human understanding! It was definitely an experiment or summon of some sort.

"Which genin gave you that? It's beautiful." The creature looked around the room and pointed at a flower pot full of yellow ice plants she had on the end of her desk. ' _Yellow….hmmm, Naruto.'_ "Naruto-kun huh? He's nice to you isn't he?" It nodded at her. "Say, I haven't asked yet….what gender are you? So I don't have to refer to you as an it." It pointed at her. "Female! Oh, you're so cute! You should totally come with me at some point to get you some Anbu grade gear. Seeing you from the back in clothes might just make people mistake you for human! It will be funny to see their reactions. Hehehe." The feline sweat dropped. Then her ears perked up and she stared at the door, gaining Saiyu's attention. Not but a few seconds later the door opened to reveal Naruto.

"You ready girl? Ji-chan wants to see you." The feline began to purr and showed Naruto the ice plants. He smiled.

"You want one to give to her Naruto?" Saiyu asked. She could see how the creature seemed to long for the yellow flower.

"Are you sure Saiyu-nee-chan?"

"Sure, go ahead. I do have one favor though. Would you consider getting her a disguise? She would pull for a great surprise to lecherous males." She smiled creepily at him as she handed the feline an ice plant.

"Ehehe, suuure Nee-chan. I'll do that." He scratched the back of his head, then led the content feline creature into the Hokage's office. It actually had to crouch to get it, that's when Saiyu noticed it had a tail. She snickered to herself. _Beautiful_ , she thought, _it's simply beautiful._

The surprise on Sarutobi's face was priceless. So priceless that the Anbu in the room couldn't resist snapping a picture, after detaining the root ninja spying for Danzo first of course. The man was going to be so surprised by the end of this. Naruto snickered and said,

"Jiji, you're embarrassing her. Tell her what you think." Sarutobi's mouth snapped shut.

"She's….beautiful, that's a given. But, ah….Naruto? How in the world did you find her?" Naruto told him of what happened during the mission, Sakura and Sasuke filling in where he couldn't remember. Kakashi looked on in pride, his team was cooperating nicely, filling in almost immediately when another could not, going with the flow of their other teammates.

"I was wondering Jiji, can we get some DNA testing done on her. She looks like a mix of things, and it might help us know what she's capable of."

"Sure, Naruto," He wrote something down and stamped it twice, "just give this to the Head doctor, he and Akimi will get right to it." Naruto took the paper and saluted, then they all left, headed towards the hospital.

"We might as well get all of you a check up and physical for the Chunin Exams while we are there too. You guys have proven to be able to help one another in political matters, I hope you do the same with physical matters such as fighting too!"

"Cha!"

"Sweet!" Purrrrrr…Sasuke smiled, the cat purred along with Tora, who was in her arms as Sakura and Naruto whooped out about how awesome it was that they were going to be let in the exams. Finally they reached the hospital and had their physicals. Tora had her shots updated and so did Kakashi's nin-ken. The major problem was getting the tall cat creature to sit still and not bite the nurses as they took DNA samples and gave her the shots she needed.

"What's her name, Mr. Uzumaki?" A nurse asked him, admiring the long human like fingers, and longer than normal arms and legs of the cat creature.

"I haven't thought of that, actually...Wait! Do you have a name girl?" He asked the creature. It shook it's head at him. "Can….can I name you?" It purred and licked his cheek.

"Hehe ok, um, how about….Kiwi?" She looked at him strangely. "You've never had a kiwi have you? Well, here." He handed her a kiwi, that he got from somewhere in one of his many pockets. She sniffed it and took a bite out of it. She bit straight into the fuzzy fruit eating the skin and all. She really seemed to enjoy how the green was sour and the white middle was sweet. "Kiwi-chan it is!" He laughed. Kakashi walked into the room, followed by Sasuke, Sakura and the doctor that was doing Kiwi's DNA testing.

"Doctor, are the results in?"

"Yes, Akimi-chan. Naruto-san, we have figured out that she-"

"Kiwi-chan."

"Er, we have figured out that Kiwi-san has a large amount of DNA from a Savannah cat breed, which means that is highly likely what she was before the mutations occurred. She has trace amounts of snow leopard, hence the coloring; human and lizard DNA along with something we can not identify. We have also done a physical on her and given her shots that every nin-animal needs. Her muscles are well trained and she, as you can possibly tell, is well over six feet in height, standing tall at seven feet four inches. She also has the aspects of her feline base, her eyes grow enlarged when hunting or in the dark, allowing more light to filter into her vision, and her tail helps her balance but isn't needed for normal walking and jumping, because of the human aspect. The lizard aspect of hers seems to allow her to somewhat camouflage herself, we believe the reptile used may have been a chameleon or something similar. She also has a trained chakra pool, meaning she can possibly control it or do jutsus. However we have no clue what the unknown DNA will do for her, so watch out for that please. Kiwi-san is truly amazing Naruto-san." Naruto beamed at Kiwi.

"That's awesome!" She purred.

"You're all free to go now, but remember Naruto-san, to bring both your nin-neko back for their yearly shots."

"Thank you Doctor-san, Akimi-san!" Team seven left the hospital and went on their ways home. Training for the Chunin Exams would begin for them the next morning. Six sharp.

(Two weeks later)

Team seven had been training vigorously for the past two weeks, and Naruto was somehow able to keep his garden in top condition at that time too, bringing them fresh vegetables. Kakashi had been a slave driver, starting off at six in the morning and ending at six at night, allowing for a break for lunch and ending with dinner. He drilled them in formations and teamwork in various ways. He taught them what was more important on a battlefield and a multitude of situations where the genin actually got hurt if they messed up, giving them an incentive to strive for success. Unfortunately this secluded them from the rest of the genin in the rookie group, how ever Kakashi made up for that by simulating their attacks, and conforming them to his teams style, so that they may immediately adapt to any situation. Unfortunately he did not have certain bloodlines the genin did and tried his hardest to simulate what would happen in the event the genin were paired up with them, even including personality traits.

Their last week of training was centered around being able to work with situations that would stop most ninja from fighting. Injuries, loss of a limb and lack of clothing were involved. It was a strange day in Konoha when you could see a hard headed twelve year old Kunoichi fight in her under garments without worry as to her lack of clothing. Sakura was, however, glad that the training ground was somewhat private. She hoped she never had to use those skills, it was embarrassing, for both her and the boys, who actually had to do the exercise with small hot spring towels around their waists. If you're thinking, oh that's not so bad, the worst they can get is a kick to the nads. No, you're wrong, the worst they could get was a jutsu/kunai to the nads, which is what they were all using to learn to fight with practically naked. Kakashi was trying to keep them from attempting to keep physical dignity in the face of death on the battlefield.

Over the course of those two weeks they were also able to do drills based around the presence of a nin-ken or nin-neko. They even found an outfit for Kiwi so that when seen from behind she was a dainty female kunoichi that happened to be seven foot four. Her tail wrapped around her waist as a belt, and her face looked human enough to pass for a mutation from a clan. She looked like a kunoichi, not a nin-neko. They were ready to raise hell in the Chunin Exams, and it made Kakashi proud of his 'cute' little genin.

The next morning they were ready and on their way to the academy, Kiwi in tow. Kiwi decided to hold Tora until Naruto would take him and she and Tora would converse in meows and growls every once in a while. Those two really hit it off, possibly because they could actually converse with each other in full terms. They ignored all the people staring at Kiwi and Tora, some in fear of Tora himself because they used to be the ones to hunt him down. Some stared in lust of Kiwi, although they didn't know she was a cat hybrid, or that she had no visible facial features, they credited that to a clan.

They walked right past the genjutsu on the second floor, having known it was a genjutsu, having their situational awareness shot up to high levels by Kakashi. Lee's team noticed them and followed behind them, pretending to give up at the fake trap. When they reached the landing that went to the third floor Lee suddenly couldn't hold his excitement in and with a loud "YOSH!" he ran past team seven and practically flew up the stairs, his team running to catch up. Team seven let out a collective chuckle at Lee's behavior.

"You all ready?" Kakashi asked as he met them at the door to their assigned testing room.

"Hai!"

"You all remember the drills? The dedication you took to get here? The teamwork you need to surpass all of those in there?"

"Hai, Kaka-Sensei!" Naruto saluted.

"Hai, Kashi-Sensei!" Sasuke put a fist over his heart.

"Hai, Kakashi-Sensei!" Sakura half bowed. All three of them were ready. Kiwi mewed and grabbed Naruto and Sasuke's hands, Sakura in between them, and attempted to push them into the room.

"That's the spirit Kiwi-chan, now team seven! Go take the exams by a maelstrom firestorm of cherry blossoms."

"Hai!"


	10. Two words is all it takes

**Nikki: I guess I'll do this every ten chapters.**

 **Disclaimer:** _**Again**_ **as mentioned in the** **first** **chapter, I have** **no** **ownership of Naruto whatsoever. Masashi Kishimoto and/or any other owners of it are the owners** **not** **me!**

 **Thank you! And** _ **enjoy~**_

 **Two words is all it takes (Ch. 10)**

The first reaction was funny. The second even more so. The third, however, priceless. Sakura walked in first, garnering no attention other than the rookies taking in her change in style and attitude. Next Sasuke walked in, Ino glomped him, and exclaimed loudly,

"Sasuke-kun, I'm so glad you're here! We thought Sakura here would cause you all to not come." Now genin from other countries were looking at them, some scoffing at overconfident weaklings, others wondering why Pinkie was staring at the door intently.

"Hn." He got out of her hug and stood next to Sakura, looking at the door expectantly. Finally Naruto walked in, followed by a tall bald beauty who had her hand on his shoulder. When she was in the room they noticed she was over seven feet, way taller than any ninja usually got. The first time they took a double take at her height and clothes, some wiping their eyes furiously. She was wearing a long white dress with a cream colored belt around her waist. She also had on white knee high steel toed boots. The second time half of the kunoichi and some of the shinobi smacked their teammates who were drooling over her exotic looks, her skin was a light white-brown (cream?) color with random darker spots and smooth looking skin. The third time is when Naruto turned and said,

"Kiwi-chan, do you want to stay in here or go outside for the testing?" She bent down and licked Naruto's cheek, causing him to giggle, and some of the boys (and even girls) in the room to blush. "Alright, alright, you want a kiwi?" She nodded. He pulled a kiwi out of his pocket and handed it to her. The shinobi were watching carefully at how she would eat it (perverse, I know right?). She licked it once then opened her almost non-existent mouth to reveal several shark like teeth and bit straight through the kiwi, causing most of the males thinking perversely to cover their junk and wince. Several kunoichi in the room noticed and glared at them, promising a beating later.

"Oi! Naruto! Who's the hottie? I've never seen her before." Kiba loudly hooted.

"Kiba, everyone, this is Kiwi. We found her on our last mission and she decided to stay with us." Kiba got really close to Naruto and whispered in his ear,

"Dude, can I take her on a date after this?" Naruto looked to Kiwi and she shook her head no. Naruto laughed.

"Sorry Kiba, she doesn't want to. By the way, she's a cat person." He said, pointing to Tora, who was cuddled up and purring in Kiwi's arms. Kiba moaned lowly and lowered his head.

"Aw man, I finally find a foreign hottie that seems nice and she's a cat lover." He went to the corner and moped a bit. Hinata tried to comfort him, but it was no use. "Why cats?" he could be heard muttering. "They get all the glory." (TT-TT -face I imagined.)

A silver haired boy walked up to their group and loudly told them that they were being loud, mentioning that a few of the teams here were veterans to the exam or extremely on edge for the exams. He then told them that he knew this because of some information cards he had in his possession, then showed them the cards.

"Is there anyone you would like to know about?" Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura nodded.

"Orochimaru of the Sanin." Sasuke said.

"Tsunade of the Sanin and Chiyo of Sand." Sakura said.

"Minato Namikaze, Kushina Uzumaki, Oonoki of Earth and Shukaku the one tailed bijuu." Naruto counted off.

"Er, I meant people here. Why would you wanna know about those people though?"

"You didn't specify who….Anyway I wanna pass Tsunade in medical skills and the boys need to learn a bit, we all want to learn about chakra strings, Sasuke wants to know why Orochimaru was banished, and Naruto, well I don't know about him." Naruto shrugged.

"Two possibly interesting people, one really old Kage and one bijuu. Why would I _not_ want to know?" _That didn't answer anything._ The genin deadpanned.

"Ok... Well onto those people then. Orochimaru of the Sanin, skilled in ninjutsu and taijutsu, was banished from the Village of Konoha, and the land of Fire itself by the Daimyo because he experimented on children and adults of the land of Fire, most of the banishment stemmed from a secret contract for an experiment that would be issued to Iwa from him along with two modified shinobi." Sasuke nodded and took a thinking pose.

"Tsunade of the Sanin, skilled in medical jutsu and one powerful punch, she left Konoha on her own after the death of three people close to her. She's a renowned gambler with a terrible luck, hence the nickname "The legendary sucker" by people who have witnessed or felt the sting of her gambling debts." Sakura looked down and shook her head in disappointment at her idol's behavior. "Chiyo of the Sand, one of the elders of the Sand village. She is proficient in the art of battle puppetry and chakra string manipulation. She had a grudge against Konoha's white fang and will attack any silver or white haired male from Konoha, but apologize later blaming her vision and memory that he is dead." Sakura snorted.

"Minato Namikaze, otherwise known as the fourth Hokage, a man skilled in nin and fuin jutsu. He was killed while sealing the Kyuubi into an unknown host. I don't have very much info on him. Kushina Uzumaki, a whirlpool princess, container of the Kyuubi before the attack on Konoha, when she was having her baby, the baby of her husband Minato Namikaze." ' **Kit...'** Naruto's eyes narrowed. ' _I know.'_ The gennin around him were chattering about what Kabuto said about the fourth. "Oonoki is the current Kage of Iwa and specializes in particle jutsu's that cause mass destruction to his enemies. Not much can be gathered of the old man because of his country's defense and tolerance of information control. Shukaku the sand bijuu. The one tailed bijuu is chambered in a hostile and somewhat unhinged jinchuuriki. The seal holding shukaku is always weak and keeps its container from sleeping for fear of having their body taken over by the demon. The bijuu is said to be sealed currently along with a deranged monk that drives it insane."

"Kabuto-san, how, exactly, did you know the information pertaining to Kushina Uzumaki and Gaara?" Naruto asked.

"Well, I gathered it of course. That's what I do, it's kind of a-"

"What I asked you was, how _exactly_ did you get info on a woman whose marriage _never existed_ ; whose child _never existed_ ; and the info on a deranged gennin with the strength of a bijuu, who _kills_ anyone who gets near him. _How_. do. you. _know_ Kabuto-san?"

"I just told you kiddo, geez, new genin think they are the best out there I swear. Just trying to help and you question my info."

"That's what will keep us from being killed on the field."

 _(With the Jounin in the viewing/waiting area)_

All the Jonin for the examinees were sitting in a room adjacent to the testing room, behind the chalk board to be exact. It was a one way mirror into the testing room to allow Ibiki and the Jonin see how their genin would fare before the test even started. They had seen the entire altercation between team seven and Kabuto.

"Whooh, ooh ooh! Kakashi! You're genin are smart!" Asuma exclaimed, Gai joining with something 'youthful' related. Kurenai gave them a look then said,

"They are right Kakashi, your genin have taken to looking 'underneath the underneath' as you put it. But who is that Kabuto kid? I've never seen him before."

"Dunno, but he strikes me as strange, and that information was way too detailed on Kushina-senpai, she never had a child, Minato-sensei would have never shut up about it otherwise." Kakashi replied. " Don't worry though, Naruto knows what to do with overly suspicious people. Remember what I once was Kurenai, Asuma, Gai." Other Jonin were now paying close attention to their conversation, so Kakashi did the only thing he could. "Just watch my cute little genin and see their progress happen before your very eyes!" He turned to smile at everyone. Or at least it looked like a smile, eye curved upwards at them.

 _(Back with the gennin)_

Kiwi started to look around randomly, then stopped her sights on Kabuto. You could hear a low growl rumbling in her throat. Tora, who was still in her arms, looked straight at Kabuto, stood up with fur on end and began growling and hissing at him from within Kiwi's arms. Naruto looked around at the gennin in the room, as if observing them closely. He could see the Iwa nin connecting the dots and quite a few others were too. He looked straight at Kabuto, who was smirking, and with no remorse in his eyes he said one thing, one thing that would not only haunt those in the room but also make them question him in their eyes.

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"Alpha Nine."

 **Nikki: Sorry if you had to wait long, my computer was deleting stuff in a strange way. Anyway I kinda liked how this one ended. :3 Tell me what ya think so far! Any changes you think may be needed?Anything in particular I may have missed or you may want in here? Neh? Btw, Kiwi had fur that, if you look it up, looks like a white savannah cat, closest to white as possible, with a touch of a creamy brown color, maybe like light brown coffee with creamer in it? When you look at their spots they are visible, but light brownish grey/black. Her outfit is as I said, however the boots are hard to find. They are about knee high. I got the idea from playing Playstation Home, before it shut down. The boots were from the Tekken vs. Street fighter game, Chun-Li's boots. The fully white ones. On the game they came up to my character's knees, while in reality the boots are supposed to be below the calf, kind of like high top sneakers. If I find a screenshot of them from my time in the game I'll either post it on my page, or I'll draw them for ya'll and post that.**


	11. Chunin or Nah? Pt 1

**Bit of a warning, this chapter is long.**

 **Chunin or Nah? Pt. 1 (Ch. 11)**

"Alpha wha-?" Kiba inquired lamely as two Anbu flashed into the room. One of them quickly subdued Kabuto, putting him in chakra cuffs and a headlock before using a shunshin to take him away from the room while the other one walked over to Naruto, patted him on the head, and said,

"Good eye, kid, you and your team tell us of any more snakes here, K?" Naruto nodded and motioned for the Sasuke to speak with the man about something. They had gotten a hint from Kabuto himself about who he worked for and Sasuke had picked it up first. Sakura pouted towards Naruto,

"Aww, I wanted to tell 'em…" The Anbu, Naruto and Sasuke sweat dropped.

"Neh, Sakura, why don't you do the honors of telling the ones glaring who we are?" Naruto suggested, pointing out the Iwa team led by Kurotsuchi; who was pissed at him for being a blonde male from Konoha and a smart ass, the Sound team led by Dosu; who was mad because they didn't get to show off how good they were in front of the other genin, and the Sand team led by Gaara; Kankuro was the only one glaring intentionally in that group. Must have been something Naruto did the week they met.

 _(Flashback to one week before )_

Naruto was on his way to Ichiraku's, they had called him in on a possible mission they wanted to assign to his team actually. He had hoped it wouldn't be too far away for the mission though because of the upcoming Chunin Exams in a week. He had met up with Konohamaru, who wanted him to play ninja with him on the day he got back. Naruto made no promises, he might not get back till the day of the Exams after all. When he got to Ichiraku's he loudly exclaimed,

"Hey Ayame-chan! Hallo Opa~!" Customers shot him a strange look.

"Naruto! Hallo Enkel~!" Teuchi shot back the strange greeting.

"Will both of you shut up!" Ayame yelled from the back. Their customers shrugged and kept eating, when the two Ichiraku's were in on the strange language it was ok, they were already strange anyway.

"Ayame, disrespecting the bro-lingo…" Naruto and Teuchi pouted.

"What ever you two. Anyway, Naruto. We have a requested mission for you and your team. You specifically, as your team will just be there for formality. But, it's only if you want to go." Teuchi smiled at Naruto and handed him a mission fill out form. He read it. ' _Employer: Ichiraku Ramen. Rank: C. Mission details: Genin Naruto Uzumaki of Team Seven has been requested to go to Suna's installation of_ _Palace of the Four Winds_ _, of whom_ _Ichiraku Ramen_ _is the parent company, and is to check out complaints put in place by customers of said installation as he is an inspection manager to all Ichiraku funded shops and restaurants. If possible attach this to an escort mission for plausible reason of funding if needed. Normally this would be a D-rank, but it is necessary that Uzumaki goes.'_ Naruto nodded and said,

"Need me to test anything before I go?" Ayame shook her head.

"We haven't had any new ideas or had any sent to us for testing yet, however the Suna installation of this restaurant is ruining business for the other ones including here in Konoha. People who visit the Suna one are complaining of customer service issues, bad food, rodents and overall bad quality. They were actually surprised when they went to the other restaurants because of the lack of 'disgusting things' in their words."

"Please stop this from happening anymore. We can't afford to lose more business because of one bad employee." Teuchi chimed in. Naruto saluted with a stern look on his face. No one messed with his restaurants. They were his pride and joy, and the pride and joy of the Ichiraku's, who were like family to him. He wasn't about to let some wannabe chef with a pack rat complex ruin their business if he had anything to say about it.

And he did have a say in it as their inspector.

He immediately went to the missions office and showed the ninja on duty the mission form. The Hokage, who was sitting next to him approved it and called for Team Seven to go on this mission, and even added an escort mission on for no extra charge as the escort mission actually bumped the whole thing up to a C-rank mission, just like Teuchi wanted if needed. They were to find the escort clients and wait for Naruto to get done checking out the restaurant, even watch the hell bending he was going to give the manager if they felt like it. Kakashi was thinking that if Naruto could get angry over something impersonal and even just a misunderstanding as his book, he didn't want to be on his bad side when it was as personal as when a family-like friend's business was being affected severely.

They each went to their homes and packed for the mission, bringing scrolls and other things that Kakashi had taught them how to seal. Sasuke, Sakura and Kakashi all had small bags on their backs, full of a couple of scrolls and immediate needed things, like extra shuriken, while Naruto just pulled whatever he needed from his pockets. They had gotten used to him pulling things from his pockets in that weird fashion, even giving up on trying to figure out how he fit larger things into his pockets, things that shouldn't fit, such as the giant windmill shuriken. This time however he looked completely serious about this mission. There was no air of happiness at getting a new mission, or any sense of normality from him. Kiwi and Tora weren't even there to cheer him up, as Kiwi was with Saiyu, who was teaching her things he didn't even want to think about and Tora was at the vet, getting all his vaccines and checkups up to date for the upcoming Chunin Exams.

The trek through the forests surrounding Konoha was at a slower pace because of the need to conserve energy for the one through the desert, which was more deadly, time consuming and energy consuming to them. The whole way Naruto had a 'calm before the storm' expression on his face, they could tell he was thinking hard about this restaurant and what he would have to witness when he walked in. As soon as they reached the village and spoke with the guards about their missions they separated, Naruto headed for the restaurant, Kakashi and the other two genin for the client's residence. Their clients were mentioned to be not only ninja coming to the exams, but these ninja were the children, the genin at least, of the current Kazekage, who would be joining them on their trek back.

Kakashi stopped in front of a medium sized sandstone house, it looked pretty much like every house in the village with slight variations, such as the plants outside, rare in the desert, considering stuff hardly grew here, he was willing to bet Naruto would go nuts for those. Sakura knocked on the door and they all stood back. A blond haired woman opened the door and looked at their headbands, then turned, showing off four ponytails, and said,

"You must be our escorts from Konoha, come on in. I need to get Kankuro and Baki up. Gaara is sitting in the corner over there, try not to make him angry." They followed her in and sat in the living area while the girl went upstairs to get her other teammates. The boy, Gaara, looked about their age, but more stressed out than them if the marks under his eyes said anything. He didn't say anything to them the whole five minutes the girl was upstairs getting the other two boys. When she came down with them they introduced themselves.

"Hello, I'm Baki, the leader of this group, this is Temari, Kankuro and Gaara, my genin." The Jonin said, pointing to the girl, the boy with the black hood and face paint, and Gaara respectively.

"Where is your third teammate? Don't tell me he passed out from heat exhaustion on the way over." Kankuro commented. Kakashi twitched and did that eye smile thing and replied,

"Actually we are going to go get him. He is finishing some business he had here for another mission placed by a close friend of his." Baki was wary about that, but didn't show it. They wouldn't dare spy on Suna, being as they were allies, however they had to be careful. They followed the remainder of Team Seven to the worst restaurant in town, Palace of the Four Winds. "Oh, by the way, my name is Kakashi, I am the leader of Team Seven here. This is Sasuke and Sakura."

"ARE YOU FREAKIN' _KIDDING_ ME!"

"And _that_ was Naruto." Kakashi finished. They walked in, through a crowd of leaving terrified people, just in time to see a greasy looking man be thrown out of the kitchen and an irate blonde boy walk out with a frying pan in his hands.

"This restaurant is an Ichiraku funded project, one of their proudest and only chain restaurant in the entire elemental nations, and you have the _nerve_ to let it get into this condition! You are a disgrace! A filthy disgrace to the Ichiraku name! You have orphans paying for food, prices skyrocketing, letting filthy questionable people meet here, sell drugs here and not even pay for their food. Filth contaminates the food, kitchen and the restaurant itself, the service is terrible, the people are unhappy and is that a freakin' dog sized _rat_?" Naruto, which is who the Suna team guessed this boy was, slowly advanced on the greasy man with each complaint. He picked him up by the shirt and threw him across the room.

"That is not the Ichiraku way of life! Don't you try to run from me!" He caught the man by his apron and smacked him over the head with the frying pan, which caused the handle to break. "Look at that, the _frying pan_ wasn't even properly cared for. Are you a complete imbecile? Who the hell hired you and _where_ is Kenichi?"

"D-dead….He's dead, they put me in charge after he died."

"How the hell did he die? And _who_ put you in charge?" He brought the man close to his face.

"I did, and I'll be happy when you put my employee down." A rather portly man entered the room. He was a man from Suna's council. "What happened to Kenichi is none of your business I'm afraid, as I own this establishment, not you." Naruto looked livid.

"Listen here fat man, this restaurant is the property of the parent company Ichiraku Ramen and as it's personal inspector I will _not_ tolerate this. What the hell did you do with Kenichi? Tell me the truth and I might just let you live normally."

"As my employee said, he died, a mission I assume. I never knew ninja much, let alone cared for them." Naruto's eyes narrowed. ' **Kit, he's lying to you. I can smell Kenichi in the kitchen.'**

"Alright," Naruto did a hand sign, "Hell viewing technique: Kurama's revenge." The two men collapsed on the ground screaming, Naruto just turned his back and walked into the kitchen, sniffing the air, counters, cabinets and floor, confusing the Suna team. He opened a spice cabinet and caught what fell out. It was a large bag, and it was stained pretty bad with something dark. Naruto opened it and cringed, shutting the bag, which he carried out of the kitchen carefully. He walked passed Baki and asked,

"Where's the hospital?" Baki immediately figured out what was in the bag and led them all to the hospital, where the staff began freaking out about the condition of the man inside the bag. They all personally knew Kenichi of course, the man was a newcomer from a foreign country but was nice to everyone. He was also the owner of the restaurant before the council man took it over, claiming Kenichi died on a mission or something.

"Naruto, when did you finally get the jutsu down, Kurenai's been trying to teach that one to you all for months. You're the only one she can't get to do it."

"I wanted to surprise her in the Chunin Exams, I finished it two days ago with Kurama's help. He's the inspiration for it actually." Naruto patted his stomach to tell Kakashi who Kurama was.

"Oh, you two are speaking? I thought you were angry with one another." _You talk to it? Isn't it dangerous?_

"Yea, we're on speaking terms, he's still a little upset about the incident, something he can't remember about it." _He's nice, not dangerous, and someone was controlling him during the attack._

"Well then, be sure to surprise her, she's been frying her brains out trying to find a better way to teach it to you."

"Hai, hai."

"How'd you know those two were lying about Kenichi?" Temari asked him.

"Kenichi was never a ninja." He replied. Two days later Kenichi got out of the hospital with minor complications to his health. He now permanently had a cough, and a limp from the beating the council member's men gave him. He was happily back in charge of and cleaning up the restaurant, hiring teams to help him do so, raising Suna's funding back up again due to half of the missions being to help get supplies and food from foreign restaurants or other chains of Palace of the Four Winds. The man was single handedly helping Suna's funding and Ichiraku's reputation by the day, now that he was back in charge.

Team Baki led Team Seven out of the desert and switched roles when they hit the forests, Team Seven leading them at a slower pace back to Konoha on foot, letting them get a break and admire the scenery. Temari and Kankuro were wondering about the third teammate of Team Seven. He was short and strangely enough had his hair covered. The more they thought about it the more confusing it got. Wasn't this team a rookie team? Why did they look like three year veterans of pre-war warm-ups? Kakashi looked back at them.

"Wondering why they act like veterans, neh?" Temari and Kankuro started, but it was Kankuro that answered.

"They are rookies aren't they? You got some pretty arrogant ones to be acting like they know everything." Kakashi shook his head and put a hand on Sakura's shoulder. She spoke for them all, barely looking back at them as she did so.

"When Sasuke was eight his family was killed, he watched their deaths over and over again for three days, at first he didn't trust anyone, and wanted revenge. Then he met me. At first I was really shy and got picked on for it. He stopped my bullies and I became a fan girl of his, the last to join if I remember correctly. He stopped being friends with me after he learned of that though. Then we all met Naruto, who changed our views on everything and made us think about the other sides of things, such as why Sasuke's clan was killed, or why, for example, Orochimaru defected."

"Naruto, if you're wondering why he acts like that, was raised in a not so friendly environment." Sasuke chimed in.

"Che. It can't be that bad. Maybe he had an abusive dad, or mom, maybe grew up in a neighborhood with higher crime rate. Couldn't be too bad if he grew up in Konoha." Kankuro said. "No reason to act like a veteran when you're not one."

"I grew up in the red light district." Naruto suddenly said. He raised his hand into the air and slowly panned it across the sky while saying,

"The one area in Konoha where bar fights, street brawls, murder, drug deals, theft, murder, slavery, kidnapping, public executions by gangs, gang wars and more murder happen on a second to second basis." he put his hand down. "Everything is fast paced and everyone quick on the draw. Only Anbu level ninja are permitted to enter this civilian district because of the skill, dexterity and threat of the normal residents. It was not a place for children, but orphans like me were forgotten or used when the gang lords moved in and took over. If a person was even suspected of being traitorous they would be killed publicly in front of other gangs informants. This wasn't limited to just members of these gangs. If a man, woman or child was even giving one hint of suspicious activity leading to the possibility that they may work for a rival gang, even if they don't, they were publicly humiliated and killed."

"You just made that up." Temari elbowed him and for the first time since they started the trip Gaara spoke up.

"Shut up Kankuro, or I'll kill you."

(Flash forward to present time.)

Yea that had to be the reason Kankuro was glaring at him. He had pissed him off and when Kankuro tried to get back at him his homicidal brother scared the crap outta him. Sakura stepped up in front of the rest of her team and began rhyming.

"Hey, we're team Kakas, you think you can stop us, rock us? Think again suckas, cause we rule this ruckus!" A girl from Taki stood up and yelled out,

"Naru-chan!Ssu."

"Ms. Seven!"


End file.
